Are you happy? Is your team happy? Happy can sometimes feel like a soft word. Or something that feels pretty abstract.James Key Lim, chief executive of Delivering Happiness at Work, has shared the findings from a large meta-analysis study that happy employees have on average 31% higher productivity, their sales are 37% higher, and their creativity is some three times higher than less-happy workers.Those are some pretty impressive stats. Given that, below are three ways that we at Fierce work with leaders to create happier teams.Solicit your team’s input and get curious.According to 80 percent of respondents from a Fierce survey on characteristics of good bosses, taking action to request input around ideas and strategies is one of the most vital things managers can do to create great relationships.Tip: Have an hour one-on-one conversation with every person who reports to you. Use some of these sample questions: What has become clear to you since we met last? What topic are you hoping that I won’t bring up? What do you wish you had more time to do? What is currently impossible to do that, if it were possible, would change everything? And then, really listen.Exchange honest, open feedback. Managers who foster and encourage honest feedback from employees position their companies to make more money than those that don’t, according to a 2012 Corporate Executive Board and Harvard Business Review study titled "Open-Door Policy, Closed-Lip Reality." This study found that organizations that rated highly in open communication delivered a 10-year total shareholder return of 7.9 percent compared to 2.1 percent at other companies.Tip: Feedback needs to be clear, insightful, well thought out, and specific. If you or people on your team do not have that skill, bring in Feedback training. Practice giving feedback to each other and evaluating others’ feedback. Many times people have the best intentions to be clear and concise, and yet, delivering and crafting communication takes practice and confidence.Pay attention to your emotional wake. How do your team members feel after an interaction with you? Energized or deflated? Have you ever asked them? This tip is about emotional intelligence and honing the ability to inspire and motivate.Tip: Make a commitment to take responsibility and accountability for how you show up. Ask yourself: To whom do I need to apologize? Who deserves my praise? Who deserves my recognition?These tips may seem simple and rather ordinary, however, they truly have the capacity to shift your life and your team in ways that you can’t even imagine.We see it every day in organizations.Do you have any tips to make a team happier? The post 3 Tips for a Happier Team appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Forbes and discusses four habits the most successful leaders have in common.It is undeniable that the greatest leaders in the world share similar habits to continue their success. Great leaders transform organizations, quickly captivate the audience of a room, and most importantly - they teach others around them how to be great leaders by example. In today’s society there is a leadership gap, resulting in an uninspired workforce lacking the most important facet of business: leadership.So what is the common thread between great leaders? "People are eager to learn from them, and are mobilized by their missions. And great leaders make the impossible happen every day, igniting passion and innovation throughout an organization."Read the article.The post Fierce Resource: 4 Habits of the Most Successful Leaders appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

This is a question we get a lot. The simple answer is "No, we do not offer phone support". However, as everything in life, the reality is a bit more complex. Below I will try to explain our support process and metrics, why we generally avoid phone support and the conditions under which phone support is an option. Our current support system Our support is ticket based. A user sends an email within their learning portal or through our support portal and this becomes a "ticket" within our support system. Any further email exchanged on that subject is kept on a discussion thread and is visible to all our support representatives. This offers transparency and the ability to capture important metrics that we use to improve support. For example, we measure the number of emails exchanged to solve a problem, the amount of time between a request and first response and the Kudos our representatives got for timely and to-the point answers. Those metrics become a yardstick against which we strive to improve each month. Support patterns The transparency of measured metrics reveals support patterns that need fine-tuning. As an example, a few months ago we discovered that we had a very specific time-window which was problematic. People that requested support on Friday would often have to wait for more than 48 hours to get an answer. The fact that our support is located in Europe made matters worse for people on the West coast of the US, under that specific scenario. As a good portion of our customers are indeed in West coast the number of delayed tickets was huge. In order to deal with that problem we introduced a Saturday morning support shift. This eliminated the first answer delay problem almost entirely. Another example is the rule-of-3. Whenever a question is asked 3 times it rings a bell that it should be turned into a knowledge article. This helps reducing the support overhead and lets additional customers with the same problem get an immediate answer. Scaling support Support requests grow together with the business. This is a positive headache considering that growth is important; a headache nevertheless. In TalentLMS we offer support for all type of customers, free ones included. This puts additional stress on our support representatives and makes support scaling a pressing issue. An extensive knowledge base, videos and other collateral can help reduce the support load but only up to an extent. The trying truth is that a growing business will have a support load that is on par with its growth. Additionally, complex support requests will start to emerge. Those need combined effort from people with varying backgrounds. For example, a number of our customers need help with setting their custom domain names or setting up their single-sign-on solution. This transfers load from support representatives to a crucial resource; your tech team. When the tech team needs to allocate too much time supporting customers this has a negative impact on the product improvement rate. If mail-based support is hard to scale, phone support is a harder beast to tame altogether. To start, phone support has little value when it is too restricted. Restrict it too much and it can easily turn into a marketing gimmick. Ideally you should offer phone support 24/7. Also, it is hard to have shared support technicians as the phone is intrusive and needs immediate attention. This context switching is highly unproductive, especially when it involves tech people. From a financial point of view, phone support introduces a number of complexities that make it more expensive than the ticket mechanism. At the end of the day, this cost is to be transferred to the product price tag which is bad news for everyone. Phone support myths Still, phone support for many customers is synonymous to better support. This perception is based on assumptions though, which often turn to not be sound. The preference for phone support is mostly due to practical and psychological aspects. The practical aspect is that phone support minimizes the time to get an answer. In reality though, the answer is rarely immediate, as your question may require feedback from multiple people. Phone support is great for simple questions (that can easily be tracked on the knowledge base anyway) but makes little sense when the representative needs time to curate a proper answer. What you actually get is an immediate first-answer, which is important but commonly is not a solution to your problem. The psychological aspect is also a strong one. Having immediate access to a fellow human being is powerful. We see this a lot with less tech-savvy customers. Email seems impersonal. In all truthfulness, written communication is less personal than making or responding to a call. However, as a means of communication, written text is more useful, as putting in the time to write a concrete description for a problem (or a related solution) reduces the inherent noise of the spoken language. Which in turn can reduce the total resolution time for a support request. There is however one case where phone support is indeed superior. This is when the customers find it difficult to articulate their problem in a proper way and, at the same time, the support agent cannot "read between the lines" and provide helpful answers. In other words, when there is a communication gap. In such cases the total resolution time for ticket based support can skyrocket. This problem can be mitigated though with more experienced and better trained support agents and close monitoring of support metrics. When we offer phone support Although we have a strong preference for the ticketing support system, there are a number of occasions for which we do offer phone support. The most common case is when pre-sales consulting turns to supporting. As part of our sales process, we offer live product demos where customers can ask us anything they want about the system. And since there is a free product version, customers may try the product for as long as they want and get a sales representative to answer very specific questions by phone before buying. The second way to get phone support is via our newly introduced "Customer success manager". This is available only for bigger plans, starting from Plus upwards. The customer success manager is a direct point of contact that is here to help you succeed in whatever usage of the product you have in mind. In this broader scope, phone consulting and problem solving is part of the communication scheme that is offered. The third way to get phone support is as part of a training package. We offer paid training services where an experienced member of our team offers an in-depth walkthrough of the system. This is open-ended and can turn into a questions/answers session for you and your team with high value. Epilogue I tried to pinpoint some advantages of the ticketing based support compared to phone support. Although, as a company, we have not ruled out phone support altogether, and we do offer it under specific occasions, we truly believe that ticket-based support is more predictable, scalable and, at the end of the day, useful. As we continue to evolve we’re emphasizing on improving the support KPIs we track, mainly the time to get a first answer, the quality of answers, the total resolution time and the size and depth of the knowledge base. And this translates to scalable benefits for everyone. The post Do You Offer Phone Support? appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

eLearning games are mounting in recognition for their motivation and engagement value. Most of us believe that game design for eLearning is for experts. Indeed, games are designed better with the aid of game experts. But with a little imagination and plenty of material borrowed from your content, you can create smart games that lead to enjoyable learning experiences. Why are games so fascinating? What is it about games that traps us into their world and transport us within their stories? How come we’re able to engage in playing games for astounding periods of time? And why is this quest to win and achieve points and higher leaderboard positions so important? We could be waiting at the doctor’s office or riding a train; if we are engaged in a mobile game, we easily lose track of time. If there is one answer that will satisfy all these questions, it is this: human emotion. Games engage us through emotion. Notice how, in a single game session, the user begins with anticipation, then moves into excitement and in the end finds himself or herself screaming in glee or disappointment. The range of emotions experienced during the game are powerful motivators to stay engaged until the game concludes. This also depends on how well the game is designed. Another interesting feature of a game is its levels. Players love to complete a level and move on to the next one. The feeling of achievement and mastery propels them to achieve even more and progress even further. Notice the similarity between levels in a game and chapters in an eLearning course. If designed with the game mindset, training programs can have similarly impressive engagement, as games. The end-of-the-chapter quiz can be inserted after a topic or two within the chapter. The points accumulated can be totaled towards the end of the chapter to prove mastery. What about the music element of the game, does it have any place in the eLearning environment? Think about a short video or a case vignette as a chapter. You can use an avatar, complete with music and an attractive background, who talks directly to the learner. With the audio and visual elements as well as the level element implemented from the game to the eLearning environment, interactivity will inevitably follow. Posing riddles and providing hints to solve a question in the drill-and-practice section of the topic would easily satisfy the interactivity feature of the game. Incorporating games in eLearning is a not a new idea. eLearning developers have used premade games and integrated them in their courses for a long time. However, sometimes the flow and theme of a course may be disturbed by such external additions! When this is the case, such games interrupt learning more than they promote it! How can you plan for a game in your eLearning program? Let’s look at these 5 simple steps to designing games for your next course: 1) Explain the game clearly. Provide complete instructions for the game. Instead of displaying the game console in the beginning, encourage learners to walk through the instructions first. Then make instructions available clearly for display whenever they’re needed. The goal of the game needs to be very clear too. What is the learner going to accomplish by completing the game? Are your learners creating their own goals? Also, include hints and links to resources for information needed, in the game. Minimize frustration for your learner-players! 2) What is the role of the learner in the game? Define roles and state whether choices for roles are available to them. If there are characters in your game, what are their motivations, values and goals? 3) How will you learners start the game? The first step is always the hardest! Guide your learners to start the game through a strategy. Show them a message that instructs them what to do, for example, "Psst! check out your basket!" or "You’ve got mail!". Smoothly transition learners into your game. 4) What are the rules of your game? The idea for creating rules is to ensure that learners play in such a way that they achieve the learning goals for the section. State what is acceptable and how exceptions can be made. Encourage players to use the concepts recently learned. 5) How will your game operate? Label all parts of the game interface. How are real-world actions translated into the game? What do they click, drag, type and select to execute these actions? Include a Help facility within the game to provide guidance. Use these five steps to design games using your favorite course-authoring tool. Do share with us your game design experience! eLearning games can be created by anyone! If you have command over your course authoring tool and collaboration tools of your learning management system, you can create a game! The post 5 Great Ways to Design Games for eLearning appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Throughout the west of Ireland, the landscape is scarred by strange criss-crossing roads that climb up into the hills then simply stop, incomplete, leading nowhere. These roads were the result of the forced labor of the Irish peasantry, who under the strictures of the Poor Law and the reigning discriminatory Economic theory of the day, were made to work in exchange for food during the Great Potato Famine. These roads remain, 150 years later, as visible marks in the Irish countryside, which in this as in so many things, still bears the scars of history and are known as The Famine Roads. Read the story here. I'm reminded of an interview I heard of a holocaust survivor. The women worked hard to capture their cultural recipes, and there are a few books similar. When asked how people could let the Holocaust occur, she replied on the interview "…one small step at a time." The Road to Abilene is a story told by Pat Murray, leadership guru. Basically, it's the tale of a group of people all getting in the car to go someplace no one wants to go but all are afraid to say that. Each, through their silence, agrees to go where they don't want to go. Pat says "You stand for what you tolerate. Every choice made is a speech to others."     When working with teams, Pat speaks of the words and actions seen vs. the inside moves that are not seen. Think of a time when you were part of team, and the words and actions in a meeting were neutralized by behaviors later in other places. How does your team see you? Teams need to know not only their individual purpose and values (non-negotiables), but need to implicitly establish the purpose and values of the team as a whole to feel fully vested.     Meetings are another complication that Pat Murray speaks of. I love his quote "We all attend the same different meeting." In my CEO group, we often talk about 'the meeting after the meeting.' The lack of authenticity in formal meetings, trumped by gossip by the water cooler is a cancer to a team. "There is no trivial act." Leaders must, as Pat says, "…act from the future. You stand for what you tolerate." This is true for every member on the team, not just the leader. Each member must be equally accountable. Watch every little move and behavior in yourself and others to ensure you are aligned to the future you are all vested in.

Last week, Team Trivantis® headed down to sunny Orlando, Florida, for the 2016 Learning Solutions Conference & Expo. It was an exciting conference packed with great presentations, including keynote speaker Bill Nye the Science Guy, an illusionist and puzzle expert, and more. John Blackmon, Trivantis Chief Technology Officer, also presented, sharing his expertise on responsive design with a packed crowd in the expo hall. Thanks to all the attendees who stopped by our booth—both current customers and future customers—we loved seeing you at the show. If you picked up a free t-shirt, be sure to tweet us @Lectora when you wear it. Nothing wrong with a little eLearning #ootd, right? Inspiration (and free shirts) at booth 314! #LSCon2016 #LSCon pic.twitter.com/YPPmlVMUgK — Lectora (@Lectora) March 16, 2016 And don’t forget to check out the #LSCon backchannel on Twitter, so you can catch up on all the inspiration and tips that attendees shared through the conference. Plus, find out what our eLearning "superhero name" would be in this video! See you at the next great eLearning conference! (Hint, hint, it’s the 2016 Lectora® User Conference.) The post Learning Solutions Conference 2016 Recap appeared first on .

There are few things that give us greater joy than to shine the spotlight on successful online instructors who are using Thinkific to create and sell their online courses. Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed countless individuals from around the world build successful online businesses by creating online courses to share what they know with others. We’ve seen people create courses on how to use Microsoft Excel, how to train your dog, money management, and pretty much everything in between. And just when we thought that we’ve seen it all, we met Deanne Love, a former primary school teacher turned online instructor who has been busy inspiring and teaching thousands of people around the world how to dance with hula hoops (aka hoop dancing) with her Hooplovers online school. Inspired by her success, we reached out to her to learn more about her incredible journey, and have her share her insights to help other online instructors succeed. Here is her story: An inspiring story of a primary school teacher turned online instructor. @HOOPLOVERS #teachonlineClick To Tweet From primary school teacher to online instructor Before she became an online instructor, Deanne Love worked as a primary school teacher in Australia for several years. She later relocated to Tokyo, Japan to live out her childhood fantasy of being on the streets of the busiest, coolest city in the world - as she describes it. "I just had this overwhelming desire to move to Tokyo in Japan, so I did that", says Deanne. She arrived in Tokyo in 2003 after accepting a one-year teaching contract, but after falling in love with the culture and lifestyle, she decided to stay longer. She ended up living in Japan until 2011, at which point the frequency and intensity of the earthquakes became enough to convince her to move back to Australia. During her time in there she also met her husband, who is now her business partner at Hooplovers. Deanne’s interest in hoop dancing started in 2007, after she randomly discovered a YouTube video of a woman dancing with a hula hoop. Deanne has always loved to dance, so naturally she was inspired. "I discovered a woman on YouTube, and she was just rocking out", Deanne explains. "She wasn’t a skilled gymnast, she was just having fun and dancing to this really crazy dance music, and in that moment I was just completely mesmerized. I was like, if she can do this, I can do this. I love dancing. This is going to be great." That same day, Deanne purchased her first hula hoop and started practicing. As she researched and practiced her newly discovered passion, she realized that there was actually a large community of passionate hoop dancers around the world. "I was practicing and I realized that there was a whole world around the plant of adults who were enjoying this contemporary style of hoop dance, particularly in California, like in L.A. and San Francisco", says Deanne. Unfortunately for Deanne, Tokyo wasn’t exactly a hotspot for hoop dancers. In order to connect with other hoop dance enthusiasts, she relied primarily on the internet and social media. She even flew to Australia and the U.S. on several occasions to learn from and practice with other hoop dancers. "It was in those early years living in Japan that I personally felt really isolated, so I was looking for ways to reach out to the rest of the world, to first of all, as a student, learn and then naturally as a teacher, teach", says Deanne. "But because we were geographically separated from each other, the idea of starting to build online lessons or ways that I could really succinctly and clearly teach others online was really bubbling." Quitting her job to teach hoop dancing full-time By 2009, after honing her skills as a hoop dancer and instructor, Deanne decided to quit her job to focus on teaching others how to hoop dance full-time. She admits that this was not an easy decision for her to make. "I was working at an international school and I really loved it," says Deanne. "It was actually a hard decision because I really enjoyed my job." But this new direction did allow Deanne to combine her passion for teaching with her passion for hoop dancing, so in that sense, it was an exciting transition for her. "I was a teacher so naturally I was still going to continue my career but if was just in a different mode," says Deanne. In the beginning, most of her teaching was done offline. "We didn’t have the platforms to share as succinctly as we do now", Deanne explains. "I was doing a lot of teaching in real life. I was doing workshops and a lot of classes, so that was a major support for community and income and my teaching skills in dance." She also started publishing free hoop dancing videos on her YouTube channel, which helped her to build her brand and audience online. "We started with YouTube and we still have a really strong YouTube community. I teach on YouTube every week, and obviously that’s free", says Deanne. "So we were like, ok well, if we want to have a sustainable business and we also want our students to see the value and feel really connected, then we need to start filming online courses." Creating her first online course When Deanne and her husband created their first hoop dancing course, they sold it together with their live classes from their website. It was essentially a collection of videos that their customers could download and watch as a complementary resource to the live classes. "We just shot some basic videos, like the foundations of hoop dance, and we put that into a video file", says Deanne. "Then we had a really simple link on a very simple website that combined the sales of my real life classes with this one download." Looking back on that first set of videos that they created, Deanne is proud to say that they’ve definitely come a long way. "It was so terrible compared to what we do today. Today it’s like ‘lights, camera, action!’ and it’s a formal setup, and we have invested a lot of time and energy and funds into how we shoot today versus back then", says Deanne. "It was embarrassing, but the crazy thing was that it was working because there really wasn’t a lot of that style of online teaching, particularly in the niche market that we were working in. So I was able to successfully build my popularity as a teacher." When Deanne and her husband left Japan in 2011 and moved to Melbourne, Australia, they decided to re-shoot the videos that were included in that download package. "We re-shot the whole download file package in the corner of a warehouse with a crazy graffiti backdrop. There was no lighting, there was no studio, there was no microphone or anything, and it was all voiceover", Deanne explains. "In those days we were really just doing what we could with what we had." Those early videos, although imperfect, helped them acquire their first customers and generate revenue that could be re-invested into their business. "Those early day videos helped us to build capital, to build funds so that we could improve", says Deanne. "And I think that because we were supplementing our online courses with weekly YouTube videos, we were giving a lot of value. Our customers from those early days are still with us, and because we share things for free they don’t mind re-purchasing new things because I will always add value each time." Creating their first course also helped them learn more about the needs of their customers based on the feedback that they received. That feedback helped guide their decisions as they created new videos for their customers. "It didn’t happen overnight, but the teaching, the online business, and the building of community all started to come together", says Deanne. "We learned so much from those early days." Using Thinkific to set up their online school As their business evolved, so did the technology that they used to create and sell their online courses. In the beginning, they packaged their videos into a single file that could be downloaded from a simple website. They later switched to WordPress, but found it difficult to create a website that provided their customers with a user-friendly experience that was consistent with their branding. "I was looking for something that was more flexible and beautiful. It’s hard enough to learn movement online, so I wanted something that was really flexible and accessible so that my students could learn step by step, chapter by chapter, and really take their time if they needed to, or have the option to rush through it", says Deanne. "I have been a student my whole life as well as a teacher so, and I also get a lot of feedback from my students as to how they like to watch things and how they need things really, really simple, so it has to be super user friendly." According to Deanne, many of their customers didn’t actually want to download entire video files to their computers. They wanted to be able to watch a little bit at a time, and stream videos instead of downloading them. It was also important to their customers that the course interface be easy to navigate. That feedback from their customers became the criteria that guided their search for a suitable platform to host their online courses. That’s when they discovered Thinkific. "What we were looking for was something that would support all of our students and that I would love the look of as well", Deanne told us. "So when my husband found Thinkific, he was like ‘I think this is the one’." It was also important to Deanne to be able to customize the look of their online school to match the branding they had on other platforms such as YouTube and social media. "I really wanted a fresh, modern, clean, not clunky interface", Deanne explains. "It was really important to me that Thinkific could match our branding, so that it didn’t look like this really old-school business package; that it was going to allow us to shine the brand that people were really familiar with that would make our audience really comfortable." @Thinkific lets you customize your #onlinecourse website to match your branding. #teachonlineClick To Tweet Another reason why they made the switch Thinkific is because it allowed Deanne to create curriculums for new courses quickly and efficiently, without getting frustrated or delayed by technical challenges. "It was important to me that as new workshops and courses came to me creatively, and I was developing them, that I could put them online and that I didn’t have to have these huge barriers", says Deanne. "My development of courses could be translated really quickly to Thinkific. I could have the courses up really quickly, and they were accessible, they were branded, they were just neat, perfect, and beautiful." Marketing Hooplovers and attracting students Deanne has created some incredible courses, but she also knows that simply creating courses and hoping people will find them is not a strategy for building a sustainable business. She has spent a considerable amount of time building her audience online and testing different marketing strategies to promote her courses. We asked Deanne to reveal which of the marketing strategies she’s implemented have been the most effective for her, and it turns out that the majority of her sales have come from just 4 strategies. In no particular order, here they are: YouTube Most hoop dancing enthusiasts flock to YouTube to search for videos to learn new dance moves. For that reason, creating a YouTube channel was a no-brainer for Deanne. It didn’t happen overnight, but she now has over 55,000 subscribers on YouTube, and most of her videos receive thousands of views shortly after being published. Her video How to Hula Hoop for Total Beginners, for example, has been watched over 800,000 times since it was published in 2013. Very impressive! The two things that have contributed the most to the success of Deanne’s YouTube marketing strategy are the quality of her videos and her consistency. She publishes high quality videos on her channel every single week. She also includes a link to her online school in each video description and on the homepage of her channel. "What we do is we create a new YouTube video every week, and that’s obviously for free, and with that, link to other value points, either a blog or lesson downloads, or printed out downloads that they can use", says Deanne. Her videos are great resources for her existing customers, but they also help attract new customers by sending traffic from YouTube to her course website and email newsletter. Quality and consistency are important factors in #YouTube marketing. @HOOPLOVERS #teachonlineClick To Tweet Discount codes for courses Offering occasional discounts on specific courses has helped Deanne experience sudden increases in student enrolment each time she runs a promotion. She offers these discounts primarily to the subscribers on her email newsletter, although she sometimes offers a course discount to her social media followers as well. "Thinkific has allowed us to give discount codes which is really great for us as a business, and it is wonderful for our customers too because we can give them rewards for being so beautiful and loyal", says Deanne. "From time to time we have really great sales, and we can give just our newsletter readers a discount code, so it’s like a special code just for them, or sometimes it might be for our Instagram followers." Creating discount codes for your #onlinecourse is great for rewarding loyal customers. #teachonlineClick To Tweet Email marketing Every successful online instructor knows that having an email list of people who are interested in their course topic is extremely important. When you have a list of email subscribers, you have the power to promote your latest content and courses to people who have literally requested to receive information from you. So when Deanne told us that email marketing is something she has been focused on since the beginning, we weren’t surprised. Today, there are over 13,000 people from around the world that are subscribed to her newsletter. "My email marketing is really strong, so we have worked really hard to build a solid email list and we do that through all the channels of social media but also by offering and trying to create really valuable opt-ins", says Deanne. "For example, last year we shot an incredible video called 15 Hoop Dance Moves Your Body Will Love and we shot it on this gorgeous island in Queensland in Australia. Then we came back to Melbourne and I shot a small tutorial for each of those moves and that is available for free when people sign up for our email list. So that is definitely my strongest and clearest connection with the audience or with my community and my students, because I chat to them like every week through the email." Successful online instructors know that building an email list is very important. #teachonline…Click To Tweet Social media The two social media platforms that Deanne spends the most time on are Facebook and Instagram. "I love Instagram", says Deanne. "It’s so playful and it’s got this whole other circle of movers and shakers and it’s fun for me. It’s a really personal brand. My Instagram is like my own style, even though it’s connected to Hooplovers, I can just be super authentic on Instagram which I love and videos are really great for any movement/practice. Between Facebook and Instagram, Deanne has close to 50,000 followers, whom she shares videos, articles and images with on a regular basis. She sometimes takes advantage of Facebook’s advertising capabilities by running ads to promote her courses. "Facebook has always been there since the early days so I do use it", says Deanne. "We do put our posts on Facebook too to advertise our Thinkific courses." Helpful tips for other online instructors Deanne has certainly learned a ton of valuable lessons as she built her business. For those of you who are just getting started as online instructors, or thinking of creating an online course to share some of your knowledge and experience with the world, here are some friendly pieces of advices that Deanne would like to share with you: 1. Become the face of your business Don’t be afraid to become the face of your business. Build a personal brand around your area of expertise and make sure that brand is consistent across your website, social media channels, email marketing, etc. People are less interested in following specific companies, and more interested in following specific people.  Show your audience the person behind your business. Having a strong presence on YouTube and social media, for example, has really helped Deanne build a personal brand, which she admits has had a dramatic impact on her business. "When I really stepped into that role of being the face of the business, it’s just made the branding so much stronger", Deanne explains. "So not only was it Hooplovers but there is also this woman, which was me, Deanne Love, who people could communicate with and could speak with and it felt like they had a connection with." Don't be afraid to be the face of your business. Build a #personalbrand. @HOOPLOVERS #teachonlineClick To Tweet 2. Don’t wait to create your course Don’t let perfectionism keep you from creating your first online course. Accept that your first course may not be perfect, and just get it done. Yes, there is a chance that not everyone who takes your course will love it, but until you actually create it and get it out there, you’ll never know. "If you have an idea, and you have an audience or you’re growing an audience that is connect to that idea, then don’t wait", says Deanne. "If I didn’t put out any of my content, if I didn’t create any of my courses, I wouldn’t be able to get that feedback. Just start now." Don't let perfectionism stop you from creating your #onlinecourse. @HOOPLOVERS #teachonlineClick To Tweet 3. Listen to your audience As you build your audience and enroll students into your courses, pay attention to the feedback you receive from them. Feedback, whether positive or negative, is invaluable. Listening to her audience has helped Deanne to better understand their needs and frustrations, giving her with valuable insights to create more content and courses that can help them."Contemporary hoop dance is always moving forward, there is always something new", says Deanne. "I listen to my customers really carefully, and I always ask them to open up conversations. So I do have a lot of connection with our customers and I listen to them and I provide them with what they really want. "Start creating. Start moving forward. Start listening to your audience." @HOOPLOVERS #teachonline Click To Tweet Training the next generation of hoop dance instructors After enjoying several years of success as a hoop dance instructor, Deanne decided to create a second online school, Hoop Love Coaching, to help other hoop dance instructors build successful businesses. She created this course in response to all the requests she was receiving from people in her community who wanted to learn how they could generate an income by teaching others to hoop dance. "For the last two years since we have been powering along with our online courses, there’s been a demand for other teachers or other hopeful teachers around the planet to also do some similar stuff to what we’re doing", Deanne explains. "It’s my largest course and it’s training teachers, so there’s a lot that goes into it. I really love it. It’s probably like my biggest passion because what I’m doing is not just supporting teachers to facilitate hoop dance classes and workshops and parties, but also to start their own online business and their own community business, so I really get to like pour both my passion for business and my passion for hoop dance movement into this training course." Living a life of freedom and fulfillment Building a successful online teaching business has enabled Deanne to live a life of freedom and fulfillment. Today, with a total of 9 online courses (2 of which she offers for free) and over 1,600 students from around the world, she is living her passion and helping others to do the same every single day. "Making the shift to teaching online through Thinkific and Social Media has meant we have the time and financial freedom to travel and meet hoopers around the world while still creating and sharing our passion", says Deanne. "Our income has substantially increased. The ease of course delivery has exceeded what we ever dreamed of, Thinkific has changed the way we create and share." Teaching online through @thinkific means we have time and financial freedom. @HOOPLOVERS #teachonline Click To Tweet The post Success Story: From Primary School Teacher to Online Instructor (The Inspiring Story of Deanne Love from Hooplovers) appeared first on Thinkific.

From guest writer Judy Bloxham. We are now at a point two years on from Feltag, so has anything changed? The Feltag panel discussion at Jisc Digifest, whilst it revealed some examples of good practice, returned to many of the pre-Feltag issues we have long observed. There are three main areas that need to come together […]

Leadership can be examined from the perspective of Marshall McLuhan’s famous media tetrad. Using the tetrad, explained by Derrick de Kerkchove, co-author of McLuhan for Managers — every technology has four effects: 1. extends a human property (the car extends the foot) 2. obsolesces the previous medium by turning it into a sport or a... Read more »

Classroom-based training may well feel familiar to most employees while also providing members of staff with a chance to network and have a day away from the office, but it is beginning to fall out of favour for a number of reasons. First and foremost, trainees no longer respond well to passively accepting the instructions of a teacher. Even though it worked at school, we now live in a world where the Internet fuels the acquisition of new information and knowledge, which is a very interactive and engaging activity. Secondly, businesses are under increasing pressure to reduce the cost of training, which can spiral out of control when you factor in things like accommodation and transport. Last but not least, traditional training is incredibly inflexible. The whole class must keep pace with the teacher and consume exactly the same learning materials as everybody else, even though they could well miss vital information or not understand key concepts. Thankfully, due to the rapid rate in which new technologies have developed, e-learning is now a viable and cost-effective option for organisations wanting to adopt a new training approach. However, that doesn’t mean to say it comes in a one-size-fits-all package, as there are a number of things to consider when selecting e-learning.   Curriculum design Your audience’s unique characteristics and demographics will play a crucial part in terms of curriculum design. Which skills do they need to develop? What tone of voice should you use? Where are they located? Once you have answered these kinds of questions, you will need to decide whether your curriculum can be designed utilising the skills of internal staff or with the assistance of outside specialists. You will also need to think of infrastructural issues such as the availability of classrooms and bandwidth as well as ways to measure success.   Course content If you intend to shop around for course content, you should prioritise relevancy and depth. Don’t automatically assume that a "customer service" course will provide staff with the skills and expertise necessary to improve your audience’s experience. There is also a chance that content will be too simple or illogical, providing your workforce with little to no benefits. Therefore, read course descriptions and objectives thoroughly, look for online reviews, familiarise yourself with content providers, and reach out to e-learning and industry professionals for help.   Interactive elements At the heart of e-learning is interactivity, as trainees have complete control over their own destiny. However, additional elements such as tests and quizzes will not only keep employees interested in course content, they can also result in higher levels of memory retention too. The same goes for concepts such as gamification, which adds an element of competition to proceedings and encourages employees to keep on discovering more.   Course creation If you decide to take course creation into your own hands, it makes sense to utilise an authoring toolset or to enlist the services of an e-learning provider. Authoring tools are generally straightforward to set-up, give you complete control over content, and produce cost-effective course materials. However, an external provider will have a great deal of experience in creating e-learning courses and can free up staff resources too.   Assessment and certification With your curriculum and content, think carefully as to whether this is a standalone training exercise or part of a wider L&D strategy. Ask yourself whether it can merge with other parts of training and decide if all members of staff should be participating. You should also explore ways to monitor learning attendance, progress, and speed; otherwise there is no real way of knowing whether e-learning worked. Finally, come up with ways to generate and manage certification, which can be anything from an assessment under exam conditions to an informal question and answer session.   Review and approval Regardless of whether you or somebody else is creating the content, there will need to be a review process in place to make sure e-learning adheres to the wants and needs of your workforce. You will also need to decide who is able to comment, make decisions, and ultimately give approval. However, this has the potential to be quite time consuming, so the person tasked with such responsibility will require ample resources and support.   Delivery In addition to the format of e-learning, which can include but is not limited to Flash, HTML, and Silverlight, you will need to choose a delivery method too. While physical devices such as DVDs and memory sticks are fairly foolproof, more and more organisations are opting for cloud-based e-learning instead, as this option can increase collaboration and enable employees to complete course content at a time and in a place that suits them. What’s more, cloud-based e-learning solutions enable you to make changes at a moment’s notice, while several providers offer reporting and measurement tools as part of the package.   Management and administration It might seem like a big responsibility, but the person in charge of review and approval could also be given management and administration duties. This individual will need to believe in the power of e-learning and possess the enthusiasm to drive it forward, which also means devising some sort of future proof strategy too. A collaborative system that works in the same way as an e-learning course but invites multiple authors, reviewers and approvers to improve content can help to deliver a truly effective and efficient training solution.   Maintenance There is a strong possibility that some training materials or e-learning courses will go out of date, so set-up periodic content reviews that can incorporate feedback from employees. Again, technology is your friend, as the easily adaptable nature of HTML means that changes to content do not require extensive upheaval. If you are using an external training provider for your course content, make sure some terms for maintenance are included from the get-go or else ongoing costs could keep increasing.   Evaluation and analysis Evaluating your e-learning course can be from a return on investment or educational outcome perspective. But in both cases, you will need to propose a system of what you are measuring and how to measure it. Thankfully, most e-learning courses provide ample amounts of data to collect and collate, which can be used to see whether individual employees require more training or to make a decision to modify course content for the benefit of future workforces.   Share this post with your own audience

Greetings all! Here’s a few additions to the EdTech  Archive from last year 20150423 language, esl, vocabulary, tools, flashcards, fsl: Lingua.ly | A brand new way to learn [...] The post Additions to the Edtech Archive 45 appeared first on Many Pebbles, One Pond: The EdTech Archive.

There are so many freebies on the internet you can use for an e-learning project. There are tons of free images, fonts, templates, audio, video files, tutorials, blog posts. The only limitation can be found in Creative Common licence so double check whether you can use the asset for a commercial or private purpose. I've focused today on a totally free stuff and have built 8-slides demo in Storyline 2.  Have a look below at what I found to start working on this freebie: - inspirational blog post

The National Association of Social Workers’ (NASW) goal for Social Work Month 2016 (March) is to educate the public about the profession’s commitment to improving social conditions and opportunities for increased quality of life for everyone. The NASW reports that Social Workers confront some of the most challenging issues facing individuals, families, communities and society. Those in this profession work hard to forge solutions to help people reach their full potential; thereby making our nation a better place to live. As part of the "Forging Solutions out of Challenges" campaign, the NASW is providing social workers as well as the public with education materials and activities that everyone can take part in to commemorate the month, honor social workers, and educate about the ways that social workers bring great good to our society.  According to the NASW website activities include: 1)    Media contest - Submit a brief video, spoken word performance, poster or photo showing how social workers have helped individuals, communities or our society create solutions and positive change out of challenging situations. 2)    Film Offers - The National Association of Social Workers has partnered with two organizations to help increase access to educational films for all: a.    Gathr - The National Association of Social Workers has teamed with GATHR Films to allow social workers and their allies to host film screenings around the country. b.    The Video Project - During Social Work Month, The Video Project is offering a special deal to allow NASW members to watch four mental health and wellness films for free online and purchase the films at a 30 percent discount. 3)    Letter Writing / Op-Ed Campaign - a draft letter that can be posted on blogs and other social media accounts show the public how social workers benefit society and "Forge Solutions Out of Challenges." Many social workers specialize in particular areas, such as helping children, working in the healthcare industry, assisting those life-threatening problems, or aiding people suffering from mental illnesses or substance abuse. Social workers typically: Act as advocates for their clients Assess clients’ needs, strengths and networks to help determine their goals Educate clients and teach clients new skills to improve their well-being Link clients to essential resources within the community as well as help people navigate the social services available to them such as food stamps, child care and health care Help clients adjust to changes and challenges in their lives Protect vulnerable clients and ensure that their best interests are observed Work directly with patients or families as part of a patient's health care team to help them address certain needs Research social problems and play a valuable role in creating social policy and laws Ed4Online is proud to offer continuing education courses in the field of Behavioral Health. Please check out our complete course catalog here: https://ed4hhs.com/   Sources: https://www.socialworkers.org/pressroom/swmonth/2016/default.asp http://psychology.about.com/od/psychologycareerprofiles/p/social-worker.htm http://socialworkers.org/ http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Community-and-Social-Service/Social-workers.htm#tab-2          

Great instructional design is focused on one goal - delivering a seamless user experience that helps learners to achieve their objectives. In this post, I’ll show you how to use the principles of User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design to create course content learners will love. Good instructional design delivers a great user experience that supports successful learning outcomes - a good day for everyone!   User Experience or User Interface? Good design is essential to executing the principles of both UX and UI correctly. But what’s the difference between them? If the design of eLearning content looks good, the color schemes are attractive, and visual elements are in harmony with the overall style, we can say that the UI design has been well executed. But if your design looks great and the user struggles to find the "Next page" button for example, that’s a bad user experience. In a nutshell: UI is about how eLearning course content looks and UX is about how it feels to use it.   How to edit text for instructional design I’ll start with how to present text as, in most cases, it will be the main element of your online learning content. Because text is central to most eLearning courses, it’s essential that it’s edited and aligned correctly. Line length To support the best reading experience, optimal line length should be between 50 and 70 characters. If you use fewer characters, the text will be too narrow. The reader’s eyes will have to travel from one side of the screen to the other very quickly, creating strain and frustration with longer pieces of text. But if lines are too long and wide, readers will struggle to focus as they move through the text. Paragraph alignment Avoid using justified paragraph alignment. Justified text blocks can look better in some cases. But varied spacing between words makes text in a justified format difficult to read. Also avoid creating long paragraphs and blocks of text. Chunking, or dividing text into sections, is easier to scan and read, and supports learning. Red lines indicate the differences in word spacing. Although the text block looks more aligned in general, these spacings are tricky for longer text. Designers sometimes jokingly call this kind of text alignment "grandma’s teeth". Fonts When choosing a font size, I recommend between 15 and 18px for longer pieces of body text. Learners over the age of 40 may struggle to read text in smaller font sizes. Using a smaller font also makes it likely that lines will be too long to read easily. Sans Serif fonts are easier to read onscreen than Serif fonts, and the reverse is true for print. There’s no need to use more than two different fonts in one eLearning project. As most of the font families have different styles (from thin to black), two fonts are usually more than enough. Use a bold or black font style for headings, and combine with a slightly darker color and larger font size. That kind of contrast helps to break up text, making it easier for learners to read. Be consistent Consistency is critical to all elements of instructional design, including text editing. To stay consistent, begin by defining and documenting your standards and design elements for different types of texts. And then apply those rules throughout your eLearning project.   How to use color for instructional design There’s no hard and fast rule for choosing the "right" color for eLearning course content. I recommend selecting your primary color based on the topic covered in your course. For example, if the course is about "flower farming", the primary color should be green. The secondary color should be pink - not only because it suits the subject of the course, but also because green and pink are complementary. Mother nature knows a lot about color combinations! There’s no need to use more that 2 or 3 colors in one eLearning course. All of the main colors you select will have tints and shades that can be used for various design elements. It’s also important that your use of color is consistent throughout your eLearning project. One exception to note is that multi color usage can be helpful if you want to distinguish multiple sections by labeling them with additional colors. Values of color In order to use the harmony rules of color combination effectively, it’s important to know that colors have three values: hue, saturation, and brightness (or luminosity). Hue is the term for the pure spectrum colors, which appear in the hue circle, rainbow, or color wheel. Theoretically, all colors can be mixed from three basic hues, known as primaries. Saturation describes the purity of a color. High saturation colors look rich and full. Low saturated colors are pastel. Luminosity describes the lightness or darkness of a color. Light colors are called tints and dark colors are called shades. Color Wheel: you will see values for the selected color in the wheel on the right. Hue has 360° of different color hues. The closer the selected color is to the wheel’s center, the lower its saturation. In this color wheel, only 2 dimensions of a color are given. If we extended the wheel to create a cylinder, that dimension would represent the brightness of the chosen hue and saturation. It’s useful to understand these values as they can be used to create contrast in color combinations. Contrast can be created with the hue value by using opposite colors in the wheel (known as complementary colors), or by using colors of contrasting saturation or brightness. To get to know these rules and to find useful combinations for your eLearning project, play around with the color wheel. It’s easy to find good combinations on the color wheel by applying one of the harmony rules (analogous, monochromatic, triad, complementary). Or you can search for color combinations that have been posted by designers.   Graphic elements & images Graphics and images should only be included in course content when they support the learning experience. Overusing visual content can distract the learner and undermine objectives. The use of images and graphics should be careful and deliberate. Visual elements should never be included simply to fill white space. Be consistent The consistency rule applies to visual content too. It’s important not to mix different styles - especially with graphics that are used for visual support, for example characters in a scenario. If you use a style of character in a course, reuse the style as appropriate throughout the project. In this image you can see three different character styles. Structure It’s also wise to create a mock-up or wireframe of all of the pages in your project and start with an overview of structure and layout. Two-four template pages are usually more than enough, as you can vary each template slightly as needed. Once the learner is familiar with the structure of your content, the rest of the course will be easy to absorb. This is especially true of UI elements, like navigation. If the position of navigation varies from page to page, it can frustrate learners. Begin by defining the patterns you’ll use on each page to reduce distracting differences between image and graphic sizes throughout your course   Hierarchy of elements & white space The purpose of white space in instructional design is not just to be filled. White space is in itself very important - it enhances readability for learners. The composition of your course content will be made up of design blocks, which may be text blocks, UI elements, or videos and images. Keep two principles in mind when designing your project’s composition: Hierarchy of elements: Define what’s important on your page and enhance it with positioning or sizing. Use enough white space: The more important a design element is, the more white space it requires.   To conclude - KISS One of my favorite design principles is "KISS", which stands for Keep it Simple Stupid. That’s not to say anyone is "stupid".  The idea is to keep things so simple that it seems obvious. Although the KISS design principle is usually used for software development, it can also be applied to improve user experience in eLearning. Keep KISS in mind when you’re reviewing eLearning content. Remove unnecessary design elements that don’t have a specific function or distract from the overall design style. Applying KISS will keep your layout clean and enhance the readability of your most important content.   And now you’re all set to create effective instructional design that supports user experience and learning outcomes. Created a course so good looking you think it will sell? Learn how here.   Want to read more? Sign up to get our latest posts! The post Essentials of great instructional design appeared first on LearnUpon.

A great learning management system shouldn’t work in isolation. Depending on the nature of your organization, an LMS may deliver most value by integrating with existing applications. The benefits of LMS integrations are many and varied. Working with systems that are already familiar can increase the rate and ease of user adoption. Integrations can also deliver a much better user experience. Systems that can talk to each other and work together reduce manual admin and user frustration. Another major benefit is the increased range and depth of reports that LMS integrations can deliver. The more integrated your systems are in general, the easier it will be for individuals, teams and departments to work together towards the same goals. Because we value LMS integrations at LearnUpon, we developed a range of options for the systems and platforms our customers use most. Here are nine LMS integrations you need to deliver more efficient eLearning.   Salesforce integration How the integration works: Connecting LearnUpon with Salesforce, the world’s number one cloud CRM, takes just a few clicks. After that, LearnUpon customers can access all of their training data directly within the Salesforce platform. That means that information about learner actions like enrollment, commencement and completion automatically syncs in real-time between LearnUpon and Salesforce databases. You can also use single sign-on (SSO) to allow learners to use one set of credentials across both platforms. SSO enables users to move directly from an intranet or corporate network to a personal learning portal without needing to login again. Why you should integrate: If you already use Salesforce, integrating the platform with your LMS is a no-brainer. The main benefits are an improved user experience for admins and learners and lots of useful reporting options. To access LMS features, users simply click on a learning tab in Salesforce, without needing to login to LearnUpon or even leave the Salesforce platform. Real-time information display and widgets also help admins to quickly see which courses learners are registered for. As learners access things like training materials, videos and exams, all tracking and completion data is available to admins in Salesforce itself. The integration also makes it easy to generate training reports in Salesforce. Key data transfers: Users, learner progress and completion history.   Shopify integration How the integration works: LearnUpon’s eCommerce features make it easy for Subject Matter Experts and training companies to sell online courses. To make eCommerce for eLearning even easier, LearnUpon customers can integrate their LMS with Shopify, the world’s leading eCommerce platform. The integration allows customers to link courses in LearnUpon directly to their own products in a customized Shopify store. Why you should integrate: The LMS integration makes starting an eLearning eCommerce venture simple - it takes less than two minutes to integrate LearnUpon’s LMS with Shopify. And then you’re ready to provide a simple and secure experience to customers all over the world. Key data transfers: Users, products and purchases Learn more: How to sell online courses with Shopify   PayPal, Authorize.Net and Stripe payment integrations How the integration works: If you decide to sell online courses, you should offer prospective customers user-friendly payment options. That’s the goal of our LMS integrations with PayPal, Authorize.Net and Stripe. As one of the world’s most popular payment gateways, millions of customers use PayPal to make and receive online payments. Authorize.net has over 400,000 customers internationally. And Stripe Connect allows LearnUpon customers to seamlessly integrate their account to provide a fast and efficient checkout process without being redirected from their LearnUpon store. Why you should integrate: Our range of LMS integration options allows you to choose the payment gateways that are most popular with your customers. By integrating your LMS with PayPal, Authorize.Net or Stripe, you can deliver a secure and simple shopping cart experience to customers all over the world. Key data transfers: eCommerce purchases   Google Analytics integration How the integration works: If you choose to sell courses, you should measure your store’s performance to enhance user experience and boost eCommerce conversions. Integrating your LMS with Google Analytics will give you access to powerful data about things like: which channels customers use most to reach your store, how visits fluctuate by days of the week and hours of the day, and which courses are most popular. Why you should integrate: Measuring the performance of eCommerce initiatives is essential to determining if the work you’re doing is valuable, and what kind of Return on Investment you can expect. Analyzing the information tracked in Google Analytics can ultimately help you to increase course sales. Key data transfers: Page click tracking, page views, and lots more   See LearnUpon work. Schedule a demo now.   Microsoft Azure AD integration How the integration works: Our integration with Microsoft Azure AD makes it easy for LearnUpon customers to manage user access and enable SSO with Microsoft applications like Office 365. Users simply login to LearnUpon using their organizational accounts hosted in Microsoft Azure AD. Why you should integrate: The LMS integration makes it even easier for learners to access and use their LMS securely. Admins enjoy a simple step-by-step user interface to configure the integration. Key data transfers: Users, groups and custom data   LinkedIn integration How the integration works: The LMS integration allows learners who complete courses to display and share certificates on their LinkedIn profile. Why you should integrate: LinkedIn reports that users who display certification achievements receive up to six times more profile views than average. Our LinkedIn integration also allows those who deliver training to promote courses. Every time a learner shares a certificate with their followers, it builds awareness about your eLearning offerings. Key data transfers: Certification completion and expiry dates   Try LearnUpon for yourself. Start your 30 day free trial now.   Twitter integration How the integration works: Integrating with Twitter gives course providers new opportunities to communicate with users and promote their courses. LearnUpon customers can embed their Twitter feed in their eCommerce store or on the dashboard of their LMS. Learners can also can use the Twitter integration to tweet about courses they’ve successfully completed. Why you should integrate: Embedding your Twitter feed will help learners and prospective customers to stay up-to-date with company news. Enabling learners to tweet about course completions is a win-win. It adds social proof to your marketing efforts and helps learners to share news about their achievements. Key data transfers: Certification completion and expiry dates   LRS integration How the integration works: A Learning Record Store, or LRS, works with the Tin Can API to collect, store and retrieve data about a huge range of learning experiences. LearnUpon integrates with all Learning Record Stores on the market, including Wax LRS by Saltbox, Grassblade LRS, WaterShed LRS and Learning Locker. Integrating with an LRS means that Tin Can statements can be retrieved for reporting and analysis of learner data as they’re needed. Why you should integrate: It’s not essential to integrate with an LRS to generate Tin Can reports. LearnUpon stores, tracks and reports on Tin Can statements even without a Learning Record Store, for example. But an LRS gives you more options for reporting on, and crunching, that Tin Can data. Integrating your LMS with an LRS also helps data to be presented in a way that’s accessible and easy to interpret. Key data transfers: All of your Tin Can API statements   API integrations How the integration works: As well as integrating with other software systems and platforms, LearnUpon’s API can be used to customize your LMS. Our API is used to create users, add them to groups, enroll them in courses, and extract user and course completion data. Some customers use our API to generate enrollments in courses from third-party apps. Others use the progress made by learners in LearnUpon to build gamification and leaderboards outside the LMS. Why you should integrate: Customers integrate with our API to automate processes, reduce manual work and create a more efficient and convenient experience for admins and managers. Integrating with an API allows you to access data in an automated way, avoiding the need for admins to login, search, and report on data in a manual fashion. Key data transfers: Users, Courses, Groups, Enrollments Learn more: Should you use SSO or an API with your LMS?   Webhooks integrations How the integration works: Integrating with webhooks allows you to customize and automate eLearning processes. You’ll find webhooks most useful if you want to access real-time information. Your developer will create a "module" (a simple script or piece of code on your website) that allows you to "listen" for the event you’re interested in: when a course is completed, or a learner fails an exam, for example. As soon as the event occurs, your LMS will use the webhook to notify you in real time. You can then use information forwarded with the webhook to update or create additional actions elsewhere in a separate website or application. Why you should integrate: Our customers use information pushed by webhooks to automate reports and flag important learning events in related applications. Key data transfers: Users, courses, groups and enrollments Learn more: Should you use SSO or an API with your LMS?   But that’s just the start! There are lots more system integrations coming this year to make delivering eLearning easier than ever.   Try LearnUpon free for 30 days .learnupon.com Agree to Terms of Service Start my free trial The post 10 LMS integrations you need for better eLearning appeared first on LearnUpon.

[Post by Justin Hearn, President of GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.] An article in the March/April edition of Elearning! magazine states the global market for learning management systems and talent management systems is projected to triple in size by 2020. "Why is the LMS/TMS Market Tripling?" author Joe Didanto notes that just a few years ago the same market predicted that the LMS "is dead in its current form." So what’s changed? The article is based on the results of a survey done by Elearning! of its broad readership. Although the main reason given for LMS/TMS growth was as expected, there were deeper business drivers at play. It had been speculated the growth was a matter of organizations pushing more and more content out via the Internet to extend their reach. And in fact, more than 60 percent of respondents choose "reaching new learning populations" as the reason for increased use of LMS/TMS. However, at least half responded that they were also trying to improve user experience and employee engagement. Nearly as many said shortening the time to competency was a factor. And there were other reasons as well. Based on the results of a survey, the top five reasons given for the projected growth are: 1. Expanding employee learning opportunities = 62 percent 2. Improving employee engagement = 52.1 percent 3. Improving user experience = 50.1 percent 4. Improve speed to competency = 48.7 percent 5. Improve performance management = 48.5 percent We’ve certainly seen the trend for online learning at the higher education and corporate level. But we’ve also seen it trickling down to high schools and small businesses. So we’re not surprised that those areas would spur market growth. But we’re also not surprised by the other business drivers. While many cloud-based LMSs are all about pushing out content, our systems have always been designed for employee engagement, user experience and time to competency. Interestingly, the reported ‘must have’ features are still the ones we’ve set as priorities in our software development such as course tracking, assessment and certification — and more recently, mobile support. The biggest selection factors for LMSs were shown to be integration, user experience and quality, which we’re been masters at since 1992. One of the issues raised by the author is something that we at GeoMetrix Data Systems have not had a problem with. That issue is upgrades, which for many installed solutions, especially those with customizations, was cause for slow-down of applying new versions. Since we designed our systems so upgrades are transparent, even with customizations, that’s never been a problem for our customers. One of the things we were surprised with from the survey was that those planning to upgrade or purchase a new system are expecting to spend more than $1 million on it. With the reported low cost of cloud-based systems, we wondered why this expectation was so high. Our GeoTalent installed LMS, with its proven integration capability, user experience, quality and mobile support is much less than that — even taking implementation costs into account for staff on both sides. You can read the full article on page 30 of the March/April edition of Elearning! Magazine

[Post by Karla Willems, Account Manager at GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.] The World Aviation Training Conference and Tradeshow is the largest meeting of aviation training professionals in the world alongside the sector’s biggest tradeshow. The 19th edition of WATS is a four-day event with more than 100 presentations with a theme of Optimizing Blended Learning and Training Technology. "The aviation training industry continues to deal with enormous growth prospects, while embracing new aircraft technologies and dealing with a challenging business environment. As ever, the challenge is to embrace training ‘best practice’, maximise personnel transfer-of-training, and achieve optimum human performance and operational safety." For more information visit: WATS 2016

Thank you Patrick Warburton. "Control Enthusiast".----------------------- My long-time co-workers will tell you the following about me:She's usually prepared for most contingencies.  "Worst case scenario?  She's likely considered it."She hates surprises. So the idea of Risk Registers?  Trying to prepare for everything?Oh yeah...sign...me...UP! Being more optimistic sorts, the Project Management Body of Knowledge defines risk as...An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives.Risk Registers help you identify and plan responses for known risks.Because...um...you can't plan for what you don't know.---------------------------Step 1 - Collect InformationIf your organization has templates and processes for risk management - get them.  CDC Risk Management Template  - This is a Word file that is a full risk management documentUniversity of California Enterprise Risk Management Tools - Multiple documents for analysisOther templates - for smaller scale organizations and projects (Google Search)If you have projects similar to the one you are pursuing, look at the records from previous projects. Take advantage of Lessons Learned. Did anything happen that they didn't anticipate?Look at your project intake notes or documents. Who are your stakeholders?  What is their risk tolerance?What is the impact if one of the stakeholders changes?Talk to peopleWhat sort of surprises do they encounter as they work?  What is going on in the environment that might impact your project?---------------------------------- Step 2 -  Organize Your InformationFor many of the projects that I work on, I like this framework of categories from the PMBOK (slide from a presentation from Marco deSantis)A few areas I pay particular attention to...Technical - Particularly the technology (1.2) and the complexity / interfaces (1.3).  I find that most products fail testing when you walk through a process and move between modules or section.  You know - when trying to do real work.External - If your organization has had prior relationships with particular sub-contractors and suppliers (2.1), what were the relationships like? Did they tend to deliver on time or late?  And what is your relationship to the customer (the person or people requesting the solution) (2.4)?  Will they participate? Over-participate? Can they make timely decisions? Do they stick to those decisions?Organizational - Pay attention to all of this! What happens if you can't get the star developer on your project? Or if you get the star developer and they leave half-way through the project? What happens if other priorities become more important for the organization and suddenly the people on your project stop working on your project? What happens if another project that impacts YOUR project doesn't finish on time? Or worse, gets cancelled?The other stuff will happen.  Those tend to be the areas that bite me in the tail during projects. ------------------------------------Step 3 - What is the probability that risk is going to happen?For each risk that you have identified, put it in a Probability and Impact Matrix.I like this one from IndustrialAudit.  The page gives a nice summary of Risk Management.This is a good time to pull out the post-its, markers, whiteboards etc and brainstorm with friends. They may find more risks.You may learn that some things are more important / likely than others.-------------------------------------Step 4 - What are you going to do to mitigate that risk?This is where you build the risk register.If your organization doesn't have a risk register template, there are plenty of options available online. Eventually, you wind up with a reference document that will help you make decisions when you encounter those risks during the course of the project.Martin Davies at Causal Capital has a very nice blog post outlining things to watch out for as you use Risk Registers.  HIGHLY recommended read.Even with those warnings, it is best to have SOMETHING to help guide your decisions as you encounter opportunities and challenges in your projects.Beats panicking.

Chrome extensions are fantastic additions to your already awesome Chrome browser. I’ve written before about some amazing Chrome extensions, but I’ve recently started using even more, and I feel like I need to share! Padlet Mini I’ve also written extensively about the many ways I use Padlet in my classroom. Until recently, I had never […] The post A Techy Teacher’s Toolbox: More Great Chrome Extensions for Teachers appeared first on Teaching with Technology.

The post Getting Started with Email Marketing: How to Grow an Audience and Make More Sales (Plus the Tools You’ll Need) appeared first on Teaching ESL Online.

The ADDIE and Agile frameworks are two development methodologies that are leveraged to guide L&D teams through a project. The philosophies of the ADDIE and Agile methodologies share many of the same practices. Both the Agile and ADDIE methodologies include analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation as part of their process, but the Agile methodology has distinct characteristics that set it apart from ADDIE. The incremental organization, flexible schedule, collaborative and transparent process are characteristics of a project using the Agile methodology, but how is this different from ADDIE? 1. Organization First of all, the methodologies differ in the distinctive way the practices are organized. The Agile methodology merges ADDIE’s practices of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation into two-week sprints. A "sprint" or "iteration" is a short period in which the e-learning team implements and delivers a product increment for evaluation. The ADDIE methodology organizes the practices into five sequential phases, each phase undergoing a process designed to achieve a definition strong enough to propel e-learning teams into each subsequent phase of the learning design process. For example, the analysis phase of ADDIE defines the business requirements such as the end user needs, cost estimates, and schedules. The business requirements are defined and documented prior to moving onto the next phase. This linear relationship between the five practices in ADDIE is in contrast to the Agile methodology where the five practices work together incrementally, in short, recurring sprints. 2. Flexibility Increasingly, E-learning teams are adopting the Agile approach to meet the dynamic needs of businesses. The Agile methodology allows e-learning teams to flex with shifting content, constant updates to processes and changing directions from stakeholders. The linear waterfall method that characterizes the traditional ADDIE methodology is fundamentally challenged in the face of changing business requirements. While the ADDIE methodology rigidly emphasizes a linear process dependent upon predefined business requirements, the Agile methodology allows e-learning teams to rapidly respond to shifting business requirements throughout the lifecycle of the project. 3. Collaboration In the Agile Methodology, collaboration is a fundamental element of the process, much more so than in ADDIE. The e-learning teams using the ADDIE methodology collaborate routinely, especially during each milestone in the project; however, the e-learning team and project stakeholders have the freedom to establish a collaborative relationship on their own terms without the governance of the ADDIE framework to determine the meeting dates and times. The Agile methodology has embedded daily meetings between project stakeholders and e-learning teams referred to as "daily stand-ups" into its model. Daily stand-ups make space for stakeholders and e-learning teams to discuss priorities and objectives for the day, accomplishments from the previous day, and any outstanding issues delaying progress. Further, the ADDIE methodology emphasizing quality at the end of the process during the "Evaluation" phase. It is during this phase that e-learning teams and project stakeholders work together to determine the effectiveness of the work product and make any adjustments. This is in contrast to the Agile methodology that works in "sprints" or "iterations", short, two-week periods in which the e-learning team implements and delivers a work product increment for evaluation to ensure quality. The evaluation at the end of a sprint creates a collaborative space for e-learning teams and project stakeholders to discuss the quality of the iteration, discover any issues, and prioritize tasks and sub-tasks before beginning work on the next sprint. While collaboration is a key ingredient to the success of any project, common sense is not always common practice. 4. Transparency The Agile methodology requires a greater degree of transparency than the traditional waterfall method. E-learning teams working Agile submit an iteration of a work product for evaluation at the end of every sprint as opposed to the ADDIE methodology, where a work product is delivered all at once and near the end. Transparency between e-learning teams and stakeholders is expected when working Agile because regular evaluations of work product deliverables are scheduled at the end of every sprint. The transparency provided by frequent evaluations allows e-learning teams and stakeholders to uncover any issues in the project and address them before any further work is done. A transparent approach is an opportunity to reaffirm a mutual understanding of the project’s direction by the stakeholders and e-learning team. Drawbacks to the Agile Methodology While the Agile methodology allows e-learning teams to flex to dynamic and ever-changing business requirements, the Agile methodology is not without its drawbacks. To start, Agile projects do not run with a fixed cost model. Business requirements evolve throughout the lifecycle of an agile project and such unpredictability makes it difficult to determine definite timelines and negotiate fixed prices accordingly. Frequent deliverables and the need to get each work product approved is demanding and time-consuming, requiring the availability of representatives on the client side such as the subject matter experts and the end users. Frequent delivery also puts a lot of pressure on e-learning teams to deliver high quality deliverables within a very short period. The pressure on e-learning teams to get it right the first time is unyielding and persists with every two-week sprint. Finally, Agile projects often involve heavy client participation. Too much client involvement can stall the development of a project. Stakeholders who want to wait for feedback from other internal stakeholders or differ a decision to other executives within the client organization can hinder the development process. As the saying goes, too many cooks in the kitchen can spoil the broth. Both ADDIE and Agile have their place in L&D. Understanding the project requirements or lack thereof can help e-learning teams determine which framework is better suited for a given project. Consider the organization of each framework, the level of commitment the e-learning team is prepared to make towards routine meetings, and the degree of flexibility and transparency the e-learning team is comfortable with before choosing the Agile or ADDIE framework. Then, try each framework on and see what fits. About the author:  Paloma Minaya is an Instructional Designer with InfoPro Learning based in Princeton, NJ. Paloma has a passion for the science of learning and improving the learning experience through sound instructional design methods. Prior to joining InfoPro Learning, Paloma was a Teacher and leveraged educational technologies to bring blended learning practices into the classroom. The post 4 Important Differences Between Agile and ADDIE in L&D appeared first on .

According to the 70:20:10 Framework the majority of learning is done on the job, so naturally trainers are looking for ways to incorporate this crucial area into their training portfolios. Simulations allow L&D professionals to create a structured learning environment around the 70% of learning that’s hardest to reach. There is no perfect substitute for direct experience and participation, but simulations that mimic the real thing as closely as possible can save money and (in the case of airline pilots and doctors) can even saves lives. In business, simulations solve an important problem for learning leaders because: As technology has exponentially advanced and systems have become more dynamic, managers and professionals have increased difficulty learning especially about complex systems with multiple priorities under pressing deadlines. At the same time, advances in technology have given us the ability - and at a lower cost - to create computer-based simulations to duplicate workplace experiences and provide "just in time" feedback. Let’s take a look at some key benefits of computer-based simulations as a learning tool; this methodology allows the learner… To visualize the application of the key aspects of the process or system in "real time." To test the theoretical "what ifs" by manipulating variables and finding out what works - and what does not work - without costing the company time or money by testing this out "real-time" on the job. To view the impact of one’s own and/or other people’s behavior on the actions or lack of actions. To learn more about interactive and complex decision making (that can be debriefed in the moment and transferred to real-world problems and decision making). To realize higher-level cognitive outcomes because of the control exercised in a simulated environment. It is important to emphasize that simulations are not games; their aim is to educate and inform. Simulations are best when they are closely related to the system or process in the workplace. At the same time, they should be a bit more generalized to allow for full participation from multiple functions within the company. The learning from simulations is maximized in large part because the constructive feedback from the simulation itself enables participants to take full responsibility for their own learning along with the support - and the ongoing feedback - from peers. One of the key observations from watching participants working with computer-based learning is the high level of engagement - including the ability to be the one in control. Who would think you would see people arguing over who is in control of the mouse! As with all learning methodologies, computer-based simulations need to be carefully designed and incorporated into the learning experience so the application of the learning to the workplace is properly introduced, integrated throughout and reinforced. Simulation learning is a virtual medium in which leaders, managers and other professionals can acquire business skills in a memorable way that can support the company and make it more successful. That said, as with all learning methodologies, computer-based simulations need to be integrated and properly aligned with both learning design and learning objectives to maximize the return on investment. About the author: Kathy Sherwood is the Director of Leadership and Organizational Development for InfoPro Learning. Prior to InfoPro Learning, she was the founder and senior partner of a global leadership development company for more than 20 years. Kathy’s specialty is creating a customized blend of workshops, coaching, simulations, and e-learning tools to provide leaders and managers with a competitive advantage, while also maximizing the return on training investment for their organizations. The post Simulations: Mimicking the 70 appeared first on .

Just a few Saturdays ago, I found myself at Jordan’s Furniture. For those of you unfamiliar with Jordan’s, it’s a chain of furniture stores found in the Northeast. The founders, Barry and Elliot, have incredibly thick Boston accents and have been featured in multiple commercials over the years. If you grew up in New England - or have lived here long enough - you know who they are. That being said, there I was. And I have to tell you - Jordan’s is absolutely massive - like, send-out-a-search-party-because-I-took-a-wrong-turn-at-the-armoires massive. I was shopping by myself and the look of sheer puzzlement on my face caught the eye of a saleswoman there, Joyce Swanson. "You look lost," Joyce said. "Is there anything I can help you with?" I explained to Joyce that my family and I were in need of living room furniture. Now she could have gone straight to the most expensive couch there and taken me for a ride …but she didn’t. In fact, Joyce gave me one of the best customer experiences I’ve ever had. She asked probing, insightful questions, and at no point did it feel like a sales pitch. Rather, she and I had a conversation and she uncovered my needs. Here’s a taste of how it went: What do you need to replace? I explained to her that our living room set was old.   Who’s at home? I explained to Joyce that it’s mainly my wife and me, and our teenage daughter who will be leaving for college next year.   Will this be used for mainly decorating (meaning it will only be used during holidays that happen twice a year)? Or will this be used as your family’s main sofa? I told her it would be used as my family’s main sofa set.   What do you do on your current couch now? For a number of purposes. I explained it’s where my family watches TV. I reluctantly told her it’s occasionally where we eat dinner. My wife and I will read on the couch. I told her that I even take naps on it.   How do you take naps on your current couch? At this point, Joyce has me lying down to show her the angle I typically fall asleep at to see how comfortable I’d be.   Where is the TV in the room? As we tried out different couches, the angle got to be important. If I’m laying down, am I still comfortable when I’m watching TV? Is the arm of the couch uncomfortable? You should have seen me and her interact! I had to keep mimicking the same angle on different couches to find the right fit.   As we went through the questioning process, Joyce was able to nail down which couch was best suited for my family’s needs. She had me feel different types of fabric to see which I liked best - I ended up choosing a nice leather.   Joyce stuck with me from start to finish, and at no point was she ever selling me furniture - which is her job. No. She was helping me pick the furniture that was best for my needs.   Once we decided on the "winning" couch, the rest of the experience only got better. Joyce quickly typed in all my information into Jordan’s ordering form. Now from a customer point of view, this was seamless. And Joyce knew exactly how to navigate it. Efficient, knowledgeable, and present - this trip couldn’t have gone better. She thanked me for my business and I was on my way. After I left the store, I received a text message from Joyce saying how much she enjoyed our conversation and to let her know if I needed anything else. The great customer experience continued on with the rest of the Jordan’s team: I got an email letting me know when my couch was going to be delivered, which was nailed down more accurately as the delivery date approached. As I told this story to my staff at an all-company meeting, one of our project managers started smiling. Turns out, Joyce Swanson is well-known at my company. Think about that for a moment. In an era where people almost prefer to interact less with salespeople - at a time when most people would rather click a few times and order online — we’ve got Joyce Swanson. This furniture saleswoman at a local chain of dealers created such a legendary customer experience for my staff member that she also remembered her name, long after she bought the furniture! And thanks to this article, so will you. How many furniture store salespeople do you know? Do you remember the name of the person who sold you your car? How about your computer? Presence matters in sales. Joyce understood my needs and created such an authentic connection that I told my employees about it. And now I’m telling you. Shouldn’t we all strive to have every customer experience call us to tell others how remarkable it was? The post What a Furniture Shopping Trip Taught Me About Authentic Connections appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related Stories4 Presence Skills Salespeople NeedLeadership Requires EmpathyUse Presence to Stand out in Sales 

Recently I’ve been working with a newly promoted executive at an insurance firm. His first ever 360 results indicated that his team, and many of his colleagues, experienced him as being arrogant. One team member said: "He’s like a bull in a china shop. We all hold our breath when he walks in the room because no one knows what he’s going to break before he leaves." This same executive is also known for being honest and getting things done. As we reviewed his results he told me: "I don’t get it. I’ve always figured if people knew where I stood, we wouldn’t have any problems or confusion." This, in a nutshell, is the tension between being authentic and developing potential. My coachee is direct, a fast thinker, and a straight talker. What he is painfully discovering is that these same skills — skills that worked when he was an individual contributor — don’t work to motivate others to work hard. Leadership requires he use a different skill-set. Leadership requires empathy.   Empathy: the ability to understand the feeling of other person Many new leaders are suspect of empathy. They think it means being soft. Or letting staff get away with poor quality work in order not to hurt anyone’s feelings. But real empathy is the gateway to understanding what makes others tick and understanding what makes people tick is one of the most strategic tools a leader must master. When a leader imagines what others are thinking or feeling it give them an advantage. The information gleaned from conceiving of the world through the eyes of another provides insight into how to communicate with them. Imagine having to tell someone that the quality of his or her work is below par. This is both a difficult message to convey and to hear. The tool of empathy provides a tactical way of thinking about the problem and preparing for the conversation. Questions one might consider through the lens of empathy are: Why would someone be delivering work that is below par? Are they feeling anxious? Are they too busy to proof their work before they pass it on? Might they need to learn to delegate? Or perhaps I need to reassess the resourcing of this project? Are they embarrassed? Maybe they have a knowledge gap and are ashamed to ask for help. Should I provide training? Are they unhappy about an aspect of the project for some reason? Maybe others are unhappy too. The answers to these questions provide a framework for approaching the person and getting to the root cause of the issue.   Why Empathy? Another reason for a business leader to master empathy as a competency is the rapid pace of globalization. More and more supervisors are finding that they have to manage remote teams or that they have customers in places they’ve never visited. On top of this, they must retain top talent and are often being asked to communicate directly with C-Suite executives. Being able to understand—and share—the feelings of others both improves employee engagement and increases the speed of execution. More empathy equals fewer misunderstandings.   The Empathy Muscle The good news is that empathy is a skill set that can be developed. For those of you wondering how to strengthen your own empathy muscle, here are a few simple techniques: Use people’s name when talking to them, especially if they are several ranks below you in the company hierarchy. Letting people know you remember who they are makes them feel important. Also, try to remember the names of their spouse or children. Turn away from your computer and look people in the eye when they enter your office. Giving your full attention to others increases their experience of feeling connected with you. Don’t interrupt others or rush to give advice. Fully listen to both words of their message AND the emotional undertone. When you do respond include both parts of the message. eg: I can hear you are frustrated by x and that you have some ideas to fix it.  Ask for help when you need it. You can double the impact of this one by asking someone who reports to you for assistance rather than a colleague. Just because you are the boss doesn’t mean you know how to do everything. Modeling accepting help demonstrates teamwork at its best.   Empathy at Its Best: Ask for and Accept help Accepting help comes in many forms and is perhaps the greatest form of empathy a business leader can exhibit. Accepting help requires showing vulnerability. Accepting help means admitting that you have a gap. Accepting help teaches others that it’s not only okay but also necessary to learn to recover from failure. My coachee has found the practice of accepting help, in his case in the form of coaching, meaningful. He recently said that the technique of ‘thinking into the mind of another’ has been extremely impactful. "Before our work together I probably would have told someone who was doing low-quality work that I was unhappy with their performance and that if they didn’t improve, I would be forced to remove them from the project, or even fire them. Now I can ask better questions and offer support. It’s making it easier to get them to do what I want them to do. Everybody’s happier." And maybe that’s the best reason there is to practice empathy at work. Everybody’s happier. The post Leadership Requires Empathy appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related StoriesLet’s Support Emerging Leaders Part 2: Creating a Program for High PotentialsLet’s Support Emerging Leaders Part I: Working at the Individual LevelFrom the Director’s Playbook: Endorse, Endorse, Endorse