Many professionals will tell you to avoid humor when designing your eLearning course, as it is a delicate matter: What a learner may find hilarious, another might find upsetting or even deeply offensive. However, there are so many proven benefits of adding a few funny elements to your eLearning projects, that giving it a try is certainly worth it. In this article, I will show you how to use humor to make your eLearning courses more engaging and memorable, without jeopardizing their quality. Let’s say you found the perfect way to use humor in your eLearning courses. But how about your stakeholders? What happens if you suggest using a little bit of humor and your client or Subject Matter Expert replies "This course is no laughing matter"? Well, to persuade them about your idea you can always point out the many benefits of using humor in eLearning. Here are some strong arguments you can use to convince them: 1. Humor is engaging. A healthy, positive sense of humor engages your audience, as it keeps their attention, helps them relax, and makes them more open to the eLearning course material. 2. Humor humanizes. Funny elements remind your learners that there are people behind this eLearning course, not robots. 3. Humor boosts both motivation and memory retention. And this is strict science: Comedy activates the release of dopamine in the brain, and high dopamine levels increase motivation and enhance activity in the long-term memory. 4. Humor increases productivity. The more upbeat your learners will feel, the more passion they will develop for what they are learning. Of course, to reap these benefits you need to use humor effectively; there is a very fine line between a funny eLearning course and an offensive eLearning course. In this article, I’ll share all the dos and don’ts of using humor in eLearning, so that you can make sure that the elements of fun and laughter you are adding to your eLearning course help you create truly engaging, inspiring, and memorable eLearning experiences. 5 Effective Ways To Use Humor In eLearning 1. Know your audience. Being professional with your humor is mandatory. The purpose of your eLearning course is to educate, not entertain; thus elements of humor should be only used to enhance the learning process. To ensure you are appropriate and to the point, get to now your audience before you even begin thinking about jokes. What are their ages and their professional / educational backgrounds? What are the subjects they are interested in? The more you know about your audience, the more you can relate to them and the more successful your parodies and puns will be. Also, make absolutely sure that you keep your humor directly connected to the eLearning content; humor that has nothing to do with your eLearning course content simply distracts learners from the subject matter and hinders learning. 2. Pay attention to details. Details make people connect with a story. They also entice your learners and keep them interested, as generalizations are rarely engaging or amusing. 3. Know where to use humor throughout the eLearning course. There are some points in your eLearning course where humor is more effective and its integration becomes more powerful and meaningful. For instance, as humor relieves tension, adding funny elements to a test, after an online assignment, or before an important exam could provide a brief break and reduce stress. 4. Keep jokes relevant. Humor can be a very valuable learning tool, as long as it is relevant to your eLearning course. If your jokes don’t relate to the topic, no matter how funny they are, your learners will remember the laugh, but not what they should be learning. 5. Ask for a second opinion. If you are not 100% sure that your jokes support their true purpose, ask a friend or preferably a trusted colleague for their honest opinion. If they tell you that your funny elements aren’t truly funny or, worse, they’re offensive, don’t risk including them into your eLearning course. What To Avoid When Using Humor In eLearning 1. Don’t be inappropriate. Humor is very subjective, so be very careful when using it. For example, consider avoiding it when dealing with business etiquette rules or workplace safety issues. 2. Don’t be offensive. Being aware of cultural differences is key when using humor in eLearning, as relying on common perceptions of stereotypes may prove to be a fatal mistake. This is especially important when localizing your eLearning courses, where different cultures among learners can make a humorous example very offensive in some parts of the world. 3. Don’t repeat yourself. You know what’s funny? Original jokes. Hearing the same joke twice is never funny, especially when it’s not hilarious in the first place. Avoid repeating yourself and think of alternative "gags" when your learners need to retake an online module. 4. Don’t overdo it. Overusing humor in your eLearning course will not only distract your learners and make them lose focus on your eLearning course objectives, but also make you seem unprofessional. Forcing a sense of humor, not being selective with jokes, and bombarding your audience with funny elements will only make your deliverable annoying, so make sure that you are being selective when you come up with something that sounds funny. Now that you know how to use humor in eLearning, you may be interested in learning another way to make sure that your online learners find your next eLearning course interesting, inspiring, and highly engaging. Read the article 11 Tips To Encourage Positive Attitude In eLearning and discover how encouraging positive attitudes increase the motivation levels of your audience, as it helps them focus and absorb information quicker and more effectively than any other technique! The post Using Humor In eLearning: What To Do And What To Avoid appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

In our previous installment of this series we suggested 6 of the most essential tools for online employee training, focusing mainly on the kind of tools that you’ll need for content creation-related tasks. In this post we’ll suggest tools that can help you with designing and managing your courses. 7. Excel Excel as a tool for online training you might ask? Well, while Excel excels (pun intended) in accounting and business finance tasks, it’s also a great all around solution for all kinds of list-keeping, statistical calculation, numeric analysis and all kinds of information organization. It might not be as good as a database (such as MS Access or SQL Server) or a statistics package (such as SPSS) for some of these tasks, but it’s good enough, way more intuitive to use, and very easy to begin with. What’s not to like? So, what would Excel be useful for in your case? Well, reporting for one. While TalentLMS comes with great reporting facilities out of the box, and you can built your own specialized ones, Excel allows you to really go to town with analyzing your data. Using its powerful built-in functions and plethora of available plot types, you can easily create different reports and visualizations and highlight different trends. In a larger enterprise setting, having your training data in Excel format will come handy when you need to share them with your management, marketing or accounting teams, who in most probability, are heavy spreadsheet users. But how do you do get your LMS data into Excel in the first place? Thankfully, TalentLMS designers have already thought of that, and have made almost any kind of listing in your LMS -whether it is user information, grades, course attendances, or any other training related information- available for export in an Excel compatible format. In smaller organizations, where fewer people are responsible for all aspects of the training program, including budgeting, Excel can help you track down training-related expenses, course effectiveness (e.g. by tracking grades vs other job performance metrics), and even organize time schedules (for instructor shifts, ILT courses, etc.). It’s also an invaluable finance tool for businesses that sell eLearning courses, but of course you already knew that. Excel comes as part of the MS Office suite, which, depending on where you live, can be quite expensive, going for around $229.99 as an one time purchase or $6.99 per month as part of a subscription to Microsoft’s Office 365 program. There are however several alternatives that are (almost) just as capable, including Apple’s Numbers for OS X ($9.99), Google’s web-based Sheets (free), and the Calc spreadsheet that’s part of the open source Apache OpenOffice suite. 8. Mind Mapping In the previous installment we’ve covered several programs to help you write your course and embellish it with multimedia. But what about designing it in the first place? The brainstorming and organizing part — coming up with ideas for a course, determining the correct order to present your material, thinking of what to include and what not to include, can be just as hard as actually getting down to write it. Thankfully, there are several classes of applications available that can help you with these tasks. Some of the most effective programs for that are the so-called "mind mapping" applications, which are tools to help you dump your raw brain contents, to organize them in the way that makes most sense, and to facilitate mental associations that will help you expand your ideas. Mind mapping applications are based on a form of conceptual diagrams ("mind maps") that begin with a single core concept and expand to associated ideas and concepts, which themselves can branch out to secondary ideas and so on. Mind maps are especially effective in generating, visualizing and structuring ideas, and have been used since the seventies to aid in information organization, problem solving and creative writing. Today you can find tons of mind mapping applications for all major computing platforms (including iOS and Android). For Windows, there’s the excellent Xmind (which is also available for OS X and Linux versions) and SimpleMind. For OS X, we suggest MindNode Pro and iThoughtsX. There are also several web-based mind mapping solutions, including bubbl.us and the quite more polished Coggle. 9. Project management Designing, creating, deploying and running an eLearning course is not that different than any other IT project. If you’re assigned with such a task, project management software can help you keep track of the whole process, especially if it involves multiple courses and many people (content creators, instructors, department heads, vendors, etc.) in a large organization. If you haven’t used such programs before, project management software are tools to help you plan, organize and schedule complicated (or simple, for that matter) projects, covering everything from cost estimation and resource allocation, to task scheduling, quality assurance and progress tracking. Essentially the sky (and your time) is the limit, as there are Project Management programs that range from basic to extremely deep and all-covering. Depending on the scale of your training program you can go with a lighter or a heavier approach with regards to project management. If you’re just starting out, we suggest you take it easy and manage your eLearning deployment in broad strokes, unless you have actual proof that you need to micro-manage and schedule every last part of your training program. This time we won’t suggest separate programs for Windows and Mac users, as nowadays the most popular project management options are all web-based. Our best picks would be: Asana, a very capable project management and collaboration tool, which handles actionable tasks, scheduling, bug tracking, file sharing, notifications, team chat, etc with aplomb. Zoho Projects is another capable project planing and coordination tool, that has all the features you’d expect, and also offers some unique features, like wiki pages and built-in integration with Google Apps. Basecamp is and old and proven solution, now in its third re-incarnation, that’s considered one of the leading project management tools. It’s very easy and intuitive to use, and comes with discussions, To Do lists, file management, document sharing and scheduling. You can’t really go bad with either of these options, and they all come in the form of subscription services with plans starting at around around $20/month. 10. Stock service When it comes of putting together content for your courses, a good stock service will save you tons of time, and make your lessons look far more professional. In case you’re not familiar with the term, "stock" is media industry speak for all kinds of ready-made multimedia assets such as photos, videos, clip-art and music, that you can just buy and incorporate to your courses. The stock industry has grown considerably along with the internet, so unless your course covers a very niche technical topic, you’ll be able to find high quality graphics, music and animations that match your needs. Some of the best known such services include Corbis, iStock, Shutterstock and Getty Images. While you might be tempted to use random images off of the internet for your illustration needs, it can get you into legal trouble as most of the images you find online will be copyrighted. That said, if you don’t have a budget for stock assets, there are several places you can find quality material that is either copyright free or offered with a permissive free license. Flickr’s Creative Commons image search is a good place to look for such pictures, as is Wikimedia Commons and archive.org. Anything else? And with this, we conclude our listing of the 10 most used and useful online employee training tools. Is there anything you think we’ve missed? Some essential tool you can’t live without that we left out? Let us, and your fellow TalentLMS users, know in the comments. Until next week, stay warm and keep on eLearning! The post The Top 10 Most Used Online Employee Training Tools: Part 2 appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Ready or not, the holiday season is upon us and Christmas is just around the corner. If you’re in the thick of the annual gift-buying frenzy, we’re here to help. After an annual survey of the Expand team, we’re back with another list of ideas for your favorite tech lovers. For the Designer iPad Pro At first glance, the iPad Pro just looks like a giant iPad. We can’t help but laugh as we’ve watched our tech devices get smaller and thinner, only to turn around and get bigger. (Looking at you, iPhone.) The iPad Pro is practically a different device with a different audience and a different purpose. With its huge screen, higher resolution and greater processing power than any iPad before it, the Pro is ideal for the design professional. Adding the $99 Apple Pencil makes it even more artist-friendly. Where to get it: Apple.com, Apple Store or certified Apple retailers |$799 for 32MB with Wifi For the Movie Lover TV Sometimes, you just want a new TV. But television isn’t as simple a category as it once was, so it pays to do your research. There are TVs that have built-in streaming and gaming capability, and there are others that just have a really, really good picture. Both can run the gamut in price. Different reviewers will have different opinions, too, so make sure you read more than one source. Get started here and here. Where to get one: We’ll assume you know where you’d want to buy a tv, but bear in mind that price and availability will vary by brand and unit. For the kids Toy Drone No matter your stance on drone ownership, toy drones are at the top of many kids’ Christmas lists this year. It made the Expand team’s list for the second year in a row. There are many to choose from within a reasonable price range and availability at your local big box store, but like any piece of technology, do some research before deciding which one to get. Our dev team’s favorite is the Syma Quadcopter. Where to get it: You can get the Syma X5C on Amazon for under $50. For Kids of All Ages Raspberry Pi 2 If you, like me, wondered what on earth this was, you can read more about Raspberry Pi here. It’s described as "a low cost, credit-card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV, and uses a standard keyboard and mouse" that’s powerful enough to do most everything you’re used to doing with a computer. It was created to be an educational tool to teach kids how to use programming languages like Python. Kids are encouraged to share their creations on the company’s website. Anyone, from kids to computer hobbyists, could have a lot of fun with this nifty little computer. Where to get it: Raspberry Pi 2 (and prior models) are available through the website for $35. If You’re Not Techy, but are Buying a Gift for Someone Who Is Laptop Bag or other accessories If you have a tech geek on your gift list, you may hesitate to research and buy the latest newfangled contraption. But every tech product needs accessories and peripherals, and those can make great gifts that are truly needed, appreciated and easier to buy. A laptop bag is just an example. Laptops shrink in size every year, so there may be someone on your list who’s schlepping a bag to work every day that’s twice the size of the laptop they use. Find out how big their laptop is and look for something streamlined, but sturdy. Where to get it: Zappos has a great selection of bags ranging from fashionable to functional and everything in between. Plus, they have fast, free shipping and free returns. For the photographer Sony Alpha 7r ii Sony describes their new professional camera as "...taking image resolution, sensitivity and speedy response to new heights. The Fast Hybrid AF system’s dense extra-wide focal plane phase-detection AF coverage keeps a subject in sharp focus entirely throughout the frame, while 5-axis image stabilization reduces blur which otherwise tends to affect handheld shots. High resolution is further enhanced by 4K movie recording featuring full pixel readout without pixel binning." If you know someone on your list would find that exciting, and you have the extra cash lying around, you can buy one of these fancy cameras for around $3000. Where to get it: Sony includes a list of on-and-offline retailers on their website. For the History Buff Letters of Note (book) Published last year, Letters of Note began as a Twitter account of the same name. Curated by Shaun Usher, the book contains a collection of letters written by notable people in history. A second addition, More Letters of Note, is set to arrive in the U.S. in 2016. Where to get it: The first edition of Letters of Note is available on Amazon for around $25. For the Philanthropist Charity Choice Gift Certificates Charity Choice allows you to give the gift of a charitable donation. Buy a gift card, and your recipient can choose from an extensive list of participating charities to send the funds. As the purchaser, you are able to designate the amount of the gift card and it’s fully tax deductible. Where to get it: Gift cards can be purchased directly from the Charity Choice website.  If you need more ideas, be sure to check out last year’s list. Many of the items on that list are still very relevant for this year’s gifting season! What’s at the top of your list this year? photo credit: PICT2453 via photopin (license)

Get some fast inspiration for your elearning with our quick fire elearning tips, we’ve got a bumper two part post with 99 tips for you to dig into whenever you need an elearning boost.Clicking on each tip will take you to a full blog post with more details on how to make your elearning more effective. This is part one with the first 50 tips, part two is coming up tomorrow with the remaining 49. Increase engagement 1 Learning is more effective when people care, emotional engagement is key to improving elearning results. 2 Make elearning scenarios real to drive home compliance training. 3 Spread stories liberally throughout your content to create compelling elearning. 4 Adding movement with a cinemagraph promotes more engagement. 5 Design learning experiences that reflect the learner’s reality. 6 Delight, entertain and excite with your elearning for the best results. 7 Add emotional outcomes to your learning objectives in a design brief. 8 Include your stakeholders early in the elearning design process to encourage more engagement. 9 Explain how line managers will benefit from your elearning to get them on board. 10 Use empathetic listening to put yourselves in the learner’s shoes. Multi-device elearning 11 Use responsive design to make one elearning course available on many devices. 12 Appeal to a varied workforce profile with multi-device learning. 13 Make the most of B.Y.O.D. policy by providing just in time learning. 14 Empower learners by explaining the benefits to them of the training. 15 Use mobile learning for performance support to make sure the information is easy to find. 16 Give your staff a better opportunity for self paced learning by offering courses on mobile devices. Social learning 17 Don’t hijack your staff’s social learning, relinquish control and reap the benefits. 18 Use existing social networks to encourage social learning that supports your elearning. 19 Ask how your staff are already using social learning before adding it to your strategy. Elearning games 20 "Practice playing games if you want to be successful at game design for learning" - Karl Kapp 21 Provide a safe environment for employees to experience a new technology or system with a simulation. 22 Use timed elearning games to promote quick decision making. Extend your elearning 23 Extend your elearning beyond a basic course to maximise it’s effectiveness. 24 Preboard your new employees to get the most out of induction. 25 Encourage cross-training, staff taking courses designed for other roles, to improve collaboration. 26 Think about what you can bring to your elearning from your outside experience. 27 Add valuable audio to your elearning, heighten emotions or create a lasting impression with sound. 28 Analyse the business problem before applying a technology solution. Analyse your elearning 29 Don’t overwhelm staff with too many options, target your elearning modules to their location. 30 Identify potential leaders by offering leadership training to all employees. 31 Tracking employee performance and tailoring elearning to fit helps reduce cost per hire. 32 Target your compliance elearning on a job role to ensure maximum effectiveness. 33 Be an evangelist for your elearning programme to increase its profile. 34 Set goals for your elearning based on your business objectives. 35 Incentivise your elearning to encourage staff to complete it. Use feedback from learners 36 Listen to feedback from your learners and put it into action. 37 Borrow ecommerce techniques to make it easier for staff to find relevant training. 38 "Make sure your LMS is responsive, as learners use whatever device they have to access training." Karla Anker - LMS Support Coordinator, SpongeUK. 39 Don’t offer too much choice, refine the course options for your learners. 40 Get everyone involved with Q&A, collective responsibility is the best way to maintain standards. 41 Evaluate the ROI of your elearning to identify the benefits and opportunities for the future. 42 Talk to the learners, not their managers, when designing elearning. More quick elearning tips 43 Use video in your induction programme to promote the corporate culture. 44 Use the flexibility of elearning to consistently and quickly deal with business change. 45 Create a group board on Pinterest to coordinate ideas between members of an elearning design team. 46 Be aware of the positive impact you can have with your elearning. 47 Focus on relevance in your compliance training, explain the benefits for your learners. 48 Communicate clearly so there’s less chance of misinterpretation. 49 Choose the right authoring tool for your needs to limit the costs of your elearning. 50 Make the sections within your elearning wholly relevant to one subject to increase their effectiveness. Part two of the 99 quick fire elearning tips will be published tomorrow. Discuss a project Subscribe to our newsletter The post 99 quick fire elearning tips - Part 1 appeared first on Sponge UK.

Part two of our bumper post of 99 quick fire elearning tips includes advice on emerging technology, accessibility, elearning games and more. Each tip links to a full blog post on that subject, click through to find out more ways to improve your next elearning programme. This is part two with the remaining 49 tips, don’t forget to check out part 1 for the first 50. Access and accessibility 51 Make it easy to find your elearning courses, 40% of learners can’t find what they need. 52 Don’t overload your new employees with information during their induction. 53 Use complete, descriptive alt tags to ensure everyone can understand the media in your course. 54 Be flexible when offering access to a course, 59% of new learners want to learn on the way to work. 55 Use clear and concise instructional text, guide a learner so they don’t get frustrated with your course. 56 Make your learning available to all staff to democratise the training process. 57 Ensure your content can be accessed with only a keyboard. 58 Use the correct HTML tags for headings and buttons to make training more accessible for screen reader users. 59 Factor in all the learning content when translating your elearning, including video and audio. Elearning games 60 Use a serious game in your compliance elearning to build engagement. 61 Use recognisable risks and consequences in elearning games to help decision making. 62 Introduce collaboration to your elearning game to improve decision making. 63 Games can offer benefits that no other type of learning can offer for compliance training. 64 Use elearning games to help focus on the learner performance. 65 Build depth into your elearning games to ensure engagement with the learner. 66 Use a game to allow staff to experience real risks and real consequences without any punishment for failing. 67 Create reusable graphics elements and objects to make building games more efficient. 68 Tell people what they’re going to be learning in an elearning game before they play it and debrief them afterwards. Tools and technology 69 Keep your elearning authoring tool up to date to get the most out of its features. 70 Use SaaS-based apps to collaborate more effectively with your L&D team. 71 Keep up with emerging technology like virtual reality and apply it when it’s suitable. 72 Look at the learning problem first, then find technology which solves that problem, not the other way around. 73 Augmented reality is already being used for training, think about how you could apply it. 74 Choose an authoring tool that supports accessible content. 75 Use Storyline’s built in maths-based actions to create a countdown timer. 76 Choose your authoring tool wisely if you need to update content yourselves. Creating elearning 77 Keep your elearning authoring tool up-to-date to get the most out of its features. 78 "Make your content challenging, not your language" - take Cathy Moore’s advice when creating content for non-native English speakers. 79 Understand the time scale of a project and make sure your design decisions reflect what’s possible within that period. 80 Opt for shapes over images where possible in templates so you can easily restyle for a new project. 81 Learners want relevance, make sure your content connects to your staff’s role. 82 Put your template through rigorous testing to ensure creating the final course goes smoothly. 83 Create realistic scenarios for new starters so they can experience aspects of the role before starting. 84 Focus on the most important learning objectives. 85 Link out to content that changes often so you don’t need to constantly update the course itself. 86 Use believable and relevant stories to make an emotional connection with your learners. 87 Use interactive video to keep learners actively engaged with your content. Multi-device 88 Adopt a multi-device learning approach to keep your elearning current. 89 Create a responsive, multi-device course to help future proof your elearning. More elearning tips 90 Use leadership elearning to offer a cost effective productivity boost 91 Give your elearning course a brand to turn it into a campaign. 92 Market your elearning like you would a product to build an elearning culture. 93 Explain the benefits of the learning to your staff, nothing is more motivating than personal benefits. 94 Give a consistent induction to all employees with a bespoke elearning module. 95 Build informative elearning that makes people feel like part of a team to promote inclusion for remote workers. 96 Showcase the best parts of a business with your induction elearning. 97 Think about how your elearning can be used to train external staff within your supply chain. 98 Provide specific compliance training that is relevant to a learner’s department and job role. 99 Link your elearning evaluation to the KPIs of the business. Don’t forget part one of the 99 quick fire elearning tips. Discuss a project Subscribe to our newsletter The post 99 quick fire elearning tips - Part 2 appeared first on Sponge UK.

3 Ways To Strengthen Your Corporate Culture by Empowering Employees. Our latest blog as published via ATD.org Here’s a question for you: What motivates you to go the extra mile in your role? In a recent study, 20% of the 200,000 employees surveyed worldwide across 500 organizations answered ‘camaraderie and peer motivation’1. Surprisingly, ‘money and benefits’ didn’t […] The post How to Empower Employees to Give Their Best appeared first on PulseLearning.

Do. Or do not. There is no try. The famous words of Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back are as familiar to the movie-going public as Shakespeare’s "To be, or not to be." These quotes are also the two that teachers are most likely to put up as posters in a classroom. If J.J. Abrams has anything to say about it, students’ love for Star Wars will soon rival that of their teachers. Star Wars is a worldwide phenomenon, a franchise that has spawned millions of fans, and those fans have created content far beyond the movies (people love their R2D2). In December 2015, the release of The Force Awakens will build a bridge between people who saw the original trilogy (including the prequels) and fans of a new trilogy. If the movie becomes as successful as everyone thinks (which it will), then new fans will thirst for more. It’s More than Just Pop Culture Now, incorporating a teacher’s interests in a classroom setting is nothing revolutionary. I mean, teachers do this all the time with variable amounts of success. But the difference with Star Wars is that there is already a plethora of content available to teachers. The wealth of information and resources is vast. The best part is that a lot of this content is already gathered neatly for you. Let me show you the ways. History Repeats Itself As Star Wars fans, you know that while George Lucas is a creative individual, he developed a lot of the mythology from actual historical events. So as a History or Social Studies teacher, inserting Star Wars into your curriculum seems like a logical step. For example, the famous Order 66, or the event which killed off the Jedis in Revenge of the Sith (sorry, SPOILERS for RoTS), was inspired by the Night of the Long Knives, a pivotal event during the Nazi occupation of Germany. The Night of the Long Knives is covered in the World War II section of high school curricula. This event and more are covered in detail on www.starwarsintheclassroom.com. "To Thine Own Force, Be True." That’s Social Studies and History covered, but what about other courses? For English Language Arts, Shakespeare and Star Wars blend pretty fluidly. In the words of Dave Zehr, an English teacher: "When I teach Hamlet, I share the concept of what a tragic hero is for a Shakespearean audience: someone of great stature and importance in the culture, who exhibits a tragic flaw that leads inevitable [sic] to his or her fall from grace…No one exhibits this more strongly than Anakin Skywalker." Ian Doescher recognizes this too. To help Star Wars-loving students understand Shakespeare, he wrote William Shakespeare’s Star Wars, which is an excellent primer for blending Yoda and the bard. Teachers and educators should check out Dave Zehr’s podcast, "Coffee with Kenobi," for some expert analysis on the saga itself, which you can then share with your students. Start with the episode featuring Craig Dickinson, a sixth-grade teacher who has incorporated Star Wars into his classroom. Or you can just listen to it because you’re a fan who has already bought your midnight passes for December 18th. Like I have.

The 15 images in this presentation are photos I took of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia a few winters ago.  I was amazed by the beauty of the old fashioned traditions like the image above with burlap and cotton bolls as ornamentation for the Christmas wreath.  This is one of my products on TeachersPayTeachers. The purpose of […]

Interested in a portable and sustainable career? For many, that concept translates into seeking out work-from-home opportunities. But there is one in-demand field that is often overlooked; one that holds the interest of everyone, regardless of location (in the US and abroad). Fitness. I speak from experience when I tell you that fitness is a fad that will NEVER go away. I have a closet full of neon workout outfits that prove it's easy to get caught up in the excitement and promise of results! The best part: You can get PAID to exercise! Yes! I said... PAID! Now, do I have you attention? Becoming a fitness instructor can be very rewarding. Here are a few benefits: REWARD #1: Your fitness career is PORTABLE. That the magic word! Whether you are interested in cycling, lifting, swimming, or even dancing, this career allows you to bring your knowledge and certification to any location, anywhere. REWARD #2: Fitness is popular EVERYWHERE and always in-demand! REWARD #3: Your job keeps you healthy and fit. A career in fitness allows you to emulate a mindset for yourself and your family that being healthy isn't just a hobby... it's a lifestyle. REWARD #4: Working in a fitness facility is a great way to meet new people and make friends in a new place. You're never alone in this career and it's a lot of fun! Working in that type of atmosphere can be motivating and good for your social health, as well as physical. Ready to dive into this fun and exciting career? Take advantage of the digital age and become certified as a Fitness Instructor online! With the right online program you can complete your certification at your own pace and be on your way to helping other achieve their health and fitness goals! So what are you waiting for? Modified from: http://www.milcareered.com/blog/career-spotlight-fitness-instructor#stha...          

The potential of webhooks to create more efficient eLearning processes has yet to be fully realized. For some users, that’s fine. Standard features are all they need from an LMS. But for others, tools like SSO, API and webhooks could be used to customize and automate a more effective system. Yet webhooks, in particular, are little understood. While they’re underused in eLearning, they’re also often suggested as a solution for problems they’re not really relevant to. If you’d like to access real-time information about learners and courses, here’s why webhooks should matter to you. What are webhooks? In a previous post, I compared SSO and API to a knife and fork. While the tools work well together, they also serve different purposes. To extend that analogy further, webhooks are like a dessert spoon. While a webhook can act as an effective supplement to SSO and API, it can also be used on its own. You should consider implementing webhooks if you’d like to be notified about an event as soon as it happens in your LMS. Your developer will create a "module" (that module can be a simple script or piece of code on your own website) that allows you to "listen" for the event: when a course is completed, or a learner fails an exam, for example. When the event occurs, the LMS will use the webhook to notify you in real time. You can then use information forwarded with the webhook to update or create further actions in a separate website or application.   How you already use webhooks Most of us already use the concept of webhooks on a daily basis, even if we aren’t aware of it. Every time you receive a text message on your mobile phone, you receive a kind of webhook. That’s because your phone is an application that receives a piece of information from a given source. While the word "webhook" might seem to suggest a method or action, mostly it’s used to describe the "information" that’s transferred between sending and receiving parties. In this example: The person who sent the message is the sending party You are the receiving party The text message is the webhook. Once you receive the message, you’re free to use it as you please - respond to or delete the message if it doesn’t interest you! That also applies to eLearning. You can receive a webhook, use the information you need about learners and courses, and simply discard the rest.   Using webhooks in eLearning There are as many ways to use webhooks as there are pieces of information you would like to pull from your LMS. If you’re using an LMS to deliver courses, you could benefit from receiving information like completion data as it happens in real time, for example. There are, of course, alternative ways to do so. You could use a tool or LMS feature to generate or schedule a report. Or you could ask your developer to use our API to extract the information you need from your LMS. But webhooks have the potential to be more efficient than all of these alternatives. All of these other options involve what I call "intent". You must do something to get the information you need from your LMS. Can you imagine if you had to constantly call your loved ones to ask if they had a new text message for you? It wouldn’t be very efficient, or much fun! The webhook movement solves these problems. If you want to know when a user completes a course, LearnUpon can use a webhook to tell you as soon as it happens. All you need to do is listen out for the webhook, just as your phone listens out for new text messages. While your phone has been programmed to listen, implementing a webhook involves one extra step. You need to code a small site or service. We’ll then deliver the data in a neat webhook package, saving you from the need to look for it. The information will be available to you in real time whenever you need it and however you’d like to use it.   Examples of webhooks in eLearning Like a text message, the webhook contains chunks of information that pass on important details to your application. Examples of such data include: Who completed a course Which course was completed When the course was completed What score they achieved.  And like a text message, you can choose to ignore some messages and to read and act on others. You can choose to take the information received and store it in other applications. Or you can use information from the webhook to: Build reports, dashboards or leaderboards  Update a learner’s status in your database Email a customer Log an accounting entry. Once you’ve defined the kinds of information that are most important to you, your developer can build a corresponding "listener", waiting patiently for the next webhook to arrive from your LMS! And you’ll never need to look for the data again. The webhook will deliver it to you.   For more information on how LearnUpon uses webhooks, contact our support team for access to our detailed documentation The post How to use webhooks in eLearning appeared first on LearnUpon.

[Post by Karla Willems, Account Manager at GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.] How can technology take your talent development efforts to the next level? ATD TechKnowledge 2016 is the place to learn about the latest technology trends. Hear from thought leaders and practitioners who are on the leading edge of this new frontier. Keynote speakers and session presenters promise an engaging three days. Ditto Labs CEO David Rose’s keynote is titled, "The New Vanguard for Business: Connectivity, Design, and the Internet of Things." Kate Matsudaira, Principal of Urban Influence and founder and CEO of Popforms will discuss "The Conundrum of Technical Leadership." "Evolution Mobile" is the subject of a keynote by Brian Wong, Co-Founder and CEO of Kiip. Session tracks at this year’s event include: E-learning design/development Emerging technologies Management & implementation Mobile platforms & tools Serious games & simulations Social Virtual classroom GeoMetrix and GeoTalent are proud to be Silver Sponsors of this important industry event. So join us in Las Vegas and come prepared to stretch your imagination. Remember to drop by booth # 500 in the Expo Hall to find out the latest developments with GeoTalent and TrainingPartner. Remember to check your attendee bag for a key. Bring the key to booth # 500 for a chance to try it in the prize box. If it opens the lock, you’ll walk away with that’s inside. For a free expo pass to this event, please call 1-800-616-5409 or email us by clicking here or using the contact page. For more information visit: ATD TechKnowledge® 2016

I have learned a lot from Verna Allee over the years, and frequently referred to her work on this blog. Now that Verna has retired her websites, I have collected some of her insights together in one place. It was her work on value network analysis [PDF] that particularly influenced my thinking. "Only through the power of value networks can we address our complex issues - together - and create a more hopeful future." - Verna Allee "A value network is a web of relationships that generates economic value and other benefits through complex dynamic exchanges between two or more individuals, groups or organizations. Any organization or group of organizations engaged in both tangible and intangible exchanges can be viewed as a value network, whether private industry, government or public sector." - Verna Allee "The true shape and nature of collaboration is not the social network - it is the value network. Value networks are purposeful groups of people who come together to take action. Value network modeling and analytics reflect the true nature of collaboration with a systemic human-network approach to managing business operations. It shows how work really happens through human interactions, and provides powerful new practices and metrics for managing collaborative work. It provides a way to a) better support non-hierarchical organizations such as cross-boundary teams, and task forces, and b) quickly and effectively model emergent work and complex activities that have multiple variables and frequent exceptions." - Verna Allee   Image: Value Network Analysis by Patti Anklam Verna also discussed the difference between tangible and intangible assets and knowledge. "Intangible knowledge exchanges include strategic information, planning knowledge, process knowledge, technical know-how, collaborative design, policy development, etc., which flow around and support the core product and service value chain. "Intangible benefits are advantages or favors that can be offered from one person to another. Examples might be offering to provide political support to someone. Or a research organization might ask someone to volunteer their time and expertise to a project in exchange for an intangible benefit of prestige by affiliation. These are intangible products that can be exchanged, as indeed people can and do trade favors to build relationships." - Verna Allee Source: Ocean Tomo "You can’t plan networks or force fit them into any pattern. You can’t constrain a network to be purely within your own organization - at least not if you want to get any value from it. Networks involve customers/citizens and partners. In fact every participant in a network is a partner - not in some corny marketing sense but in the reality of the exchanges in the network. Networks support communication across channels you didn’t predict in advance. They cross any organizational unit you might have defined - even following the VSM [Viable Systems Model]. For all these reasons networks are great sources of innovation - and that innovation is emergent." - Verna Allee Image: Cynefin Framework by Verna Allee

Years ago, when I started working at Indiana Wesleyan University, a student asked an innocent question, "What is Eye-woo?" In this series, Jule Kind, Director of Off Campus Library Services (OCLS), and fellow librarians share...Continue Reading »

Training employees is essential for reaping corporate success. But, those companies that are forward thinkers invest in external training. By utilizing software like SharePoint, business profitability can go from average to amazing in a nanosecond. What exactly is the extended enterprise? Anybody outside of your company who has the ability to affect your organization’s bottom line. This can include channel distribution partners, dealers, franchisees, resellers, contractors and customers.

Times are changing and this certainly applies to how we learn and the effect it has on corporate training. A move away from the one-size-fits-all mentality of years past, personalized learning will continue to be a big trend as new technologies enable learning to be very customized and accessible. SharePoint allows a trainer to offer a catered program to learners and this blog will identify three ways to do this.

There are two main purposes of the literature review of research, firstly to provide a background introduction to the chosen research area, and secondly to provide a justification for the research about to be undertaken by documenting how the topic under investigation relates to previous research. To do this, the researcher will need to cast a net widely and be open to a wide range of prior research which is directly, or indirectly, relevant to their specific research topic. This is where the first problem might arise. How does a new researcher know if something is relevant or simply something of tangential interest? There is the "need to know" information and the "good to know" information, and both are required. The literature review can come in different styles, normally as the opening chapter to a dissertation, but the review could be spread throughout several chapters, especially in a multi-disciplinary study. It is a bit like a detective story - the text has to let the reader know what the key issues are, how the research area has developed, and what has been tried before? In setting out the highlights of the history of the specific research topic, the reader needs to know the details of what is already known about the research topic, and consequently, what aspects are less well-known and might be the subject of the subsequent research by the student. I like to think of this as the "landscape" of the proposed research - the high-points and the low-points, the obviously recognisable landmarks and perhaps some of the hidden depths. By the end of the literature review, the reader should have a good understanding of the main features of the topic, why it is important, and what the academically contested areas are. Then there is the "good to know" information, and this can be more problematic. In the body of previous research, there will have been many false-starts and blind alleys. There will be respected academic literature which has investigated the topic, set out their results, and given an interpretation of the known facts, only to have been overtaken by subsequent research and shown to be wrong, or at best only partially informed. This is good information to know because it might save time by indicating a line of enquiry which has been tried and found to be fruitless, or a method of gathering data which has been improved upon and might therefore be worth looking at again. The longevity and the depth required for PhD research means that the student has opportunities to explore the realms of the possible, the unusual or off-chance lines of investigation which just might lead to a breakthrough, or a new way of thinking about the research problem. As long as this "off-piste" work is kept within reason, and not allowed to detrimentally influence the main flow of the research thinking, it is to be encouraged, because there are many great discoveries which have started when someone thought, "What if I do this instead…?" The evidential basis for many of these directional changes in thinking originates in the review of the known academic literature. That is why it is good to read widely, read deeply, and read often.

It is common this time of year to have less employees (and focus) in the office. With holiday trips, family visits, and general festivities, people have their time and priorities stretched very thin. So now is the time to get creative about who and how projects get completed.Consider this: We are rounding out a new year, and when we interview leaders, people often want to take on new things at this time of year. That perfectly aligns with the opportunity to take on new tasks when people are away.This week’s tip is to use delegation as a way to get more things accomplished during the holiday season. Well in advance of your departure, identify team members or colleagues who either have experience with similar opportunities or who have shown aptitude in other areas and an interest in yours. Clearly outline the level of decisions they can make around each item and how you would like those decisions communicated.Then it is time to let go and trust the process. If you are a Type-A control freak, know that you have set-up the decision-making strategy. Have confidence. And if anything goes differently than expected or needs course correction, you can discuss it post-holiday.Instead of being stressed this time of year, engage your team members to help get things done. Bonus gift? You will definitely learn more about yourself and each other.The post Fierce Tip of the Week: ‘Tis the Season to Delegate appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

It is a wonderful time of year to connect with yourself and each other. It can also be a time of year that is challenging. Stress can start to pile up from end of year pressure, family trips, commitments, large to-do lists, and a growing need to prepare for the upcoming year.Don’t be hard on yourself. When you commit to going to a holiday event, be conscious of the choices you are making. Choose to enjoy how you are spending your time and get out of your comfort zone.When all else fails, lean on these three tips to get more out of your holiday events:Be present. With the holiday frenzy, it can be hard to enjoy the celebrations when you are trying to wrap up last minute projects and get approvals from others. Use this time to learn something new about the people you work with. When you ask someone a question, really listen for the answer. Don’t thumb through what you want to share or say next. Look people into their eyes and really hear what they are saying. They will remember how present you were with them - that’s a gift in itself.Step away from your usual suspects. It can be very tempting to spend time with the same people you are usually with at other company or social events. It is great to connect with them, and this is an opportunity to really spread your wings and expand your circle. Meet new people, and ask them interesting questions. Try: What motivates you? What gets you out of bed in the morning? What do you consider your biggest success this year?Don’t get too tipsy. Letting loose by having a few drinks can be a fun retreat, and yet, it can also take away from the experience. If you enjoy imbibing, make sure that you are pacing yourself. You want to remember the conversations and moments that occur during the parties. Do not do something you will regret. We have all witnessed these moments, and it is not fair for anyone on your team to be forced to. What tips do you have for making the most of celebrations? The post 3 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Holiday Festivities appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Without trusted, data-savvy leaders, applying the Internet of Things to the workplace will crush employee morale.

Sustainability and reinforcement is part of most training initiatives. But how can we go beyond sustaining to learning that is integrated into our daily lives?

The image above illustrates the misconception as truth- you can not grow performance instantly by being a super amazing teacher. Some of the best faking comes from training. Most disheartening, I believe business customers know very well that training has been faking it for years. It's time for us to be brutally honest with ourselves, and I fess up- I'm guilty of these beliefs at times also. Here are common beliefs by 'training practitioners'  that are not only ineffective but unethical:Training is the solution for all performance issuesTraining people to know (versus do) is the best you can doContent drives performance.Just in case, here are the truths:Training without any additional  intervention will not change performanceIf you don't have the time, budget or resources to help people perform better, don't torture them with inadequate workshops that waste time and money just to justify your existencePerformance gaps drive design of intervention which improves performance measurablyYup, doing it the right way is hard. Doing it the wrong way is unethical. I recently asked a new e-learning developer what his focus was. He replied, "I have lots of content."  Arrrrrgggghhhh. We train dogs- we grow people. Let's abolish the word Training in 2016. Performance is our passion at RMA, so if you'd like to talk about innovative ways to drive performance, let Brittney know bhelt@russellmartin.com.

40% of workers leave because of a bad boss, according to an FSU study. Why? Failure to keep promises, blaming employees for leadership mistakes, lack of credit, disparaging remarks, silent treatment, poor or no decision making….the list goes on and on. The impact of poor leadership is not simply emotional, it’s financial. Various studies on the subject show that up to 32% of voluntary turnover can be avoided with better leadership. Calculate how much it costs to lose one competent, productive, contributing employee and then multiply that by having to replace 30% of your workforce. In case you want some help with the maths on this, estimates run as high as about 150% of their salary. Lower for more junior roles, but it all adds up as you can see. Of course it’s not simply the cost of rehiring, not that it is, in itself, simple. What about the impact in productivity, customer relationships, revenue growth, lost training costs, lost knowledge, market capitalization? One organization I read about felt that poor managerial and leadership practices cost them around 15% in sales growth annually. Gallup estimates that at any given time up to 20% of the workforce is disengaged due to poor leadership and a bad boss. Many act out their discontent in counterproductive ways, negatively influencing their co-workers, missing days on the job, and driving customers away through poor service. There is an ongoing concern you need to understand if you do not take a good look at the capability of your managers and leaders. Left to their own devices, they will then appoint their own version of what they feel to be good managers. The result is your C grade manager, then makes a D grade appointment, and eventually they appoint their own E grade manager and so on. The good news is that all of is this can be avoided. Look at leadership capability, hiring and promotional activity against numbers like sales, productivity or turnover. Run an employment engagement survey. If you are close to the business the clues will already be there. If you are not, then get closer and soon. There is the old adage that people leave managers, not companies. While that may be true, ultimately it is the company they walk away from.    

As we approach the New Year, I wanted to take a closer look at what’s been driving HR and L&D over the past 12 months. Our annual talent management conference Speexx Exchange on the eve of OEB in Berlin offered an exciting day of networking, discussion and fresh insights. I’m pleased to share some of the thoughts that were raised on the day. For me, the breadth and depth of conversation, as well as the wide range of countries, industries and roles represented deeply reflected the voice of global HR and L&D professionals. Laura Overton, Managing Director of Towards Maturity started the forum by asking one simple question, "What do you want to do differently as a result of today?" Although the answers were highly diverse, some common patterns emerged very quickly.  I’ve summarised these objectives, as well as some practical solutions that emerged on the day. Small steps in the right direction: One major issue for many organisations seemed to be simply ‘getting started’ with digital learning. This involves numerous, challenges such as figuring out what works, how useful each solution is and finding the right tool for the right job. Clearly, there is still a long way to go for organisations to become well-versed in e-learning and measuring its benefits. Some initial actions would be to look at what the top performing organisations are doing in this respect, to have clear targets and KPI’s and to get management involved in supporting the initiative. Empowering communication in the workplace: Another area where HR and L&D experts see room for improvement is ‘communication and collaboration’. Despite living in a globalised and digitalised economy with suppliers, partners and clients all over the world, many employees are yet to be empowered with strong business communication skills and cultural awareness to make things flow. We can deal with this by offering a global language and communication skills solution for all employees, agreeing on a standardised business glossary and training our staff in cultural awareness. Furthermore, peer-to-peer collaboration tools will also help to strengthen ties among employees. Staying close to the business: This is a huge one and was cited many times throughout the day. Early results of the Speexx Exchange 2015-16 Survey also reveal that ‘aligning training with business needs’ is the top challenge HR and L&D Managers predict for the coming year, cited by 27% of survey respondents. Business alignment goes hand in hand with understanding an organisation’s priorities and adapting its talent strategy to move in the same direction. It also requires speed, adaptability and being able to work with data in real time. Learning beyond the course: Courses aren’t everything, as was shown by Yves Boudib, Senior L&D Manager at LG Electronics in his presentation on 70:20:10. According to this framework, around 70% of learning actually happens outside the classroom in our daily work, e.g. through trial and error or by solving complex problems without the support of others. The challenge now for HR and L&D leaders is to embed learning and development into everyday work life, as well as encouraging social learning (20%), where peers exchange knowledge and share best practice. We no longer need to rely on classroom training alone to maximise our talent, but frameworks such as 70:20:10 can only be achieved through a refined strategy with clear objectives which are communicated across the organisation and backed by management. It’s all in the design: Finally, corporate learners need great learning tools - both in terms of content and delivery. It’s something that’s high up on all L&D lists at the moment. This includes shifting from offline to online solutions, making learning more engaging for employees and is also connected to learning beyond the classroom, as mentioned in the previous section. Organisations should approach the design question by calling to all senses (hearing, seeing, etc.) and making learning user-friendly, autonomous, fun and even competitive. It also needs to be right for the particular target group it addresses, as well as culturally sensitive. We still have a long way to go. The business landscape is constantly changing and it’s not always easy to keep up. Nevertheless, I’m more encouraged than ever by the brilliant discussions and results I saw at Speexx Exchange this year. Big things are already happening in organisations across all industries, and the more we collaborate, the more we will continue to grow. So roll on 2016!

Towards the end of December last year I decided not to do an annual round up/review type of post and instead write about my dream scenario for the coming year. Re-reading the post I realise  that it could be my recurring annual end of year dream.  I don’t think there is much I’d want to change if I was writing the post today. So maybe I should just let it become like a (classic) Christmas song  and re-publish it every year . . . enjoy. So this is the time when a lot of people are making predictions, sharing their views on developments and trends over the past year. When ever I read these posts, I tend to get a sense of plus ça change plus ça la meme chose. So I’m not going to critique any of these reviews instead I’m going to share with you, dear reader,  what I can remember of a dream I had last night about what my end of year post would be. I don’t know if you have ever listened to Tenacious D (stay with me on this) on one of their albums they have a song called The Best Song Ever. It’s a cautionary tale of a rendezvous with the Devil, writing "the best song ever" or words to that effect, forgetting almost all of it the next morning but having the frustration and knowledge that they had indeed written the best song ever - if only they could remember the killer riff and the words. This post may be a bit like that . . . continue reading here . . . or just watch this video Tagged: #christmas #learningenvironments