Greetings! Here are some of the recent additions to my Edtech Archive; a curated repository of over 7000 free educational web resources. 20150408-20150417 energy, mapping, maps, interactive, energy consumption: Community Energy Explorer - This website provides a set of tools for exploring community energy. The left menu and buttons below will show you some tools for investigating […] The post Additions to the Edtech Archive 43 appeared first on Many Pebbles, One Pond: The EdTech Archive.

The following is a guest post by Chris Rush. He is a fellow online teacher and TEOC member. Take it away, Chris… When I first started teaching online, I was bursting with excitement.  I was ready to build a website, create a business, and make a huge difference in the world, all by working from […] The post Five Ways to Use LinkedIn to Get New Students for Your Tutoring Business appeared first on Teaching ESL Online.

In the very fast-paced and competitive world of sales and marketing, it can be tricky to find solid footing. It can be even trickier to make sure you stand out from your competitors.Which brings us to our main point: You need to find new ways to connect with prospects and customers. Don’t stress about it, just pick up the phone to connect! That’s the great advice of Stacey Engle, Vice President of Marketing for Fierce, who recently explained why talking can prove to be better than texting.Tell me about your business and the solutions it offers customers?Fierce is a global leadership training company that transforms the way companies communicate and connect with their employees and customers. We partner with our clients to build conversational skills that create more candor, engagement, and accountability. Our vision is to better the world one conversation at a time. Fierce Conversations change the way we connect with each other, they alter our perceptions of what it means to lead, and they become the behavior that propels individuals and teams toward success. We facilitate workshops inside of companies both in person and virtually, as well as train facilitators to use our content. We are translated into 12 different languages and work globally in organizations, from Fortune 50 to start-ups to nonprofits.What are some challenges you are facing at this time and what are you doing to overcome those hurdles?One challenge that we are focusing on is a better way to connect with all of our Fierce Facilitators around the world. They are our champions inside of organizations, and we value each and every one of them. Next year, we are continuing to develop our Salesforce Community portal called MyFierce.What’s the best advice you’ve ever received and why?Always be truthful. I think this is the best advice, because it relates to all facets of life and business. First and foremost, it is important to be truthful with yourself. Asking "what am I pretending not to know? Why am I assuming this about x or y or he or she?" Always seeking that truth. Only when you are grounded in your truth can you really help move the needles for others. And secondly, it is relevant to be truthful with business and marketing. It sounds so simple, yet so many people find the reasons why they shouldn’t or don’t have to. Share your realities, share what you are learning, share your truth. Don’t lie and pretend to know something you don’t. Don’t compromise what others can handle. It is a surefire way to erode success — both internally and externally.What’s the worst business advice you’ve received and why?When I was young in my career, I stayed with a company for four years. At about year two I was told, "You need to bounce around and experience new things. It is a mistake to stay — you will stagnate." I think that is very short-sighted. In today’s fast-paced, always-changing world, it can be tempting to move from one problem to another, or one company to another, but it is so valuable to get a deeper understanding and perspective that sometimes only comes with time. I think that is relevant for so many marketing challenges, especially when looking at business impact. You have to be interested in short and long-term results. If you’re dedicated, you want to learn more.What are three tips for companies that are looking to connect with their prospects?Be authentic. Our work is all about being real and showing up as yourself. Use your real face. It is important to be with integrity with what you do and sell. People on the other end of the conversation — in person, behind the screen, or on the phone — will be able to tell.Do your thing. It can be tempting to always try new things — it is required for sales and marketing teams. And yet, it is important to continue to do what you know uniquely works for your company. That thing that only you can do. Our Fierce customers still appreciate how our relationships started with personal notes and invitations. It is powerful to build relationships like that.Pick up the phone. Being a conversations company, I am a big proponent of picking up the phone. People crave connection in the workplace these days, and according to recent research, more people text than call now. Be different. Pick up the phone — it works.What’s the story behind your company name?Fierce, Inc. was founded after Susan Scott published Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work & in Life One Conversation at a Time. When she originally wrote the book, the publisher wanted her to change the word from "Fierce" to "Powerful." However, she refused. Fierce, with its name, was meant to make a splash and a statement.What is your company’s superpower and why?Superhuman strength. Having fierce conversations is not easy. It takes a lot of courage and strength to express how you feel and say what you mean. Superhuman strength allows you to do the things you think you can’t. Great conversations unlock that power.by Erin Sherbert, Content Marketing Manager, SalesforceView the full article here.The post A Fierce Chat with Salesforce: Tips for Engaging with Prospects in the Age of Over-Connectivity appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Harvard Business Review and explores how to not only engage but also inspire your employees.Recent studies by Bain & Company found that inspired employees are 125% more productive than satisfied employees and 56% more productive than engaged employees.So I ask: How do we take employees from satisfied to truly inspired?It starts by looking at the top. Managers and leaders are often the ones who decide where an organization’s resources and efforts get invested. Too often they focus solely on monetary incentives, which can lead to a purely transactional relationship. According to the article Engaging Your Employees is Good, but Don’t Stop There, real inspiration starts by connecting your team’s or the individuals’ mission to the company’s overall purpose.Are you meeting each individual’s pyramid of needs?"The foundational elements—call them employee satisfaction—are fundamentals such as having a safe work environment and the tools necessary to do the job. Abraham Maslow taught us that we can’t concern ourselves with higher goals until we have the necessities of life, including security. So it is in the workplace: first things first.Read the article.The post Fierce Resource: Engaging Your Employees is Good, but Don’t Stop There appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

 You've likely seen this great video about the importance of the First Follower, popularized by Ted Talks.  In the book The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt shares this quote: "...focusing on leadership alone is like trying to understand clapping  by studying only the left hand." He claims that the correct question is not why people want to lead, but why people want to follow. Haidt says that people will follow leaders who:Establish credibility to the followers around why he or she is the leaderWill be fair and just, and avoid playing favoritesMost importantly, make a convincing argument that there can only be one leader (him or her)How much time do you fake leadership? How much time do you actually spend leading? Is your investment appropriate or lacking? We must prioritize the time and energy to make the team feel like a family, with shared values but differences that create 'a whole brain'. Everyone eating at their desk alone is not driving trust and teamwork. Things like celebrating birthdays, project success or here in Indy, an afternoon at the Indy 500 practice have long been eliminated  to focus on real work. Leadership is real work. 'Not leading' is faking it.  When I updated our ATD Leadership Training book early in 2015, I revisited our approach to  leadership programs. I don't believe you can teach leadership, although I used to fake it by thinking we could. I do believe that we can provoke leadership, helping each individual connect with others in the room to build the leader building blocks specifically for their  situation and passion. Our two-day leadership simulation is a great example of provoking leadership growth. We're happy to run the simulation for you (bhelt@russellmartin.com), or you can use this book to do it yourself.  ​

Elearning Superstars is a curated list of inspiring elearning examples, published every Tuesday. Subscribe to get weekly updates via email. Tesco: Dynamic board game teaches people the knowledge and skills for handling fire safety issues Why we like it: Demonstrates a range of gaming features such as bonus cards, beat the clock and points board. Easy to consume with the content broken up into 10 mini games. Scenario driven, addressing 10 key core behaviours complying with fire safety regulations. The game should take around one hour to complete fully, with learners achieving a gold, silver or bronze medal for each mini-game. Once a mini-game has been completed, learners will be delivered with end of game feedback. The game engine is adaptable, so different content can be built on it. Runs well on mobile devices and desktops. Visit elearning: Tesco’s compliance training board game Barclays: Digital Driving Licence is an accredited training program for workforce development Why we like it: Demonstrates a strong partnership model and blended learning. Uses open badges as well as formal accreditation can be used to verify learners’ achievements (a model that offers endorsement as well as accreditation). Offers some gaming devices to make the learning fun - e.g. the use of leaderboards to compare your scores with others on the program. Designed to be "mobile first" (although it works equally well on a desktop). Visit elearning: Barclays’ Digital Driving Licence Channel 4: Learning To Take Risks is an award winning elearning program Why we like it: Successfully links the "important but dull" messages of compliance to the aspirational goals of taking risks and pushing boundaries. Builds competence, not just compliance by focussing less on knowledge and more on actions. Captures and reflects client culture and brand by using bold images from well-known broadcast output. Uses audio voice-over narration provided by the familiar and popular voice of Channel 4 continuity announcer Corie Brown. Draws on authentic scenarios with video-based ‘mini documentaries’ and dynamic scrolling stories Highly visual learning experience, with minimal text on screen, a simple interface, and contemporary touch-screen design styles. The end result was an attractive and engaging blend of text, graphics, audio and video. Visit elearning: Channel 4’s Learning To Take Risks 3 inspiring elearning examples from Tesco, Barclays and Channel 4Click To Tweet The post 3 inspiring elearning examples from Tesco, Barclays and Channel 4 appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Brandon Hall awards are like Olympic medals for the learning and development industry. Following on from Elucidat’s Silver medal last year, we were delighted to hear Elucidat won Gold in this year’s awards. The next day, our team felt rather excited, so we created a Spotify playlist with our favorite golden songs! The details… Our simple and intuitive authoring tool won a coveted Brandon Hall Group gold award for excellence in the Best Advance in Content Authoring Technology category. A panel of veteran, independent experts, and Brandon Hall Group senior staff evaluated the entries based on product, originality, value, and results. "Our award winners are visionary and innovative developers of human capital solutions," said Brandon Hall Group COO Rachel Cooke, who runs the awards program. "We move organizations forward by serving employees, customers and investors." What makes Elucidat a multi-award winning authoring tool? Elucidat’s multi-award winning authoring tool (we also won a 2015 UK E-Learning award) helps large companies and publishers streamline elearning production, design and deployment, enabling them to deliver multi-device elearning 50% faster. In addition, Elucidat’s simple point and edit functionality empowers all team members (even non-technical) to create beautiful elearning that really stands out from the crowd. Interested in learning more? Read these Elucidat success stories to learn how we are helping companies deliver better-looking elearning, faster. Tesco uses Elucidat to increase the number of elearning creators by 200% and reduce costs by 50% Utility Warehouse uses Elucidat to deliver elearning to 46,000 learners on any device.   The post Elucidat wins a Gold Brandon Hall Group Excellence Award appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

A whopping 91% of the US population now owns a smartphone. How does this impact your elearning? Are you accommodating the modern, mobile-first learner? In this article, Steve Penfold shares four reasons why you need to consider mobile learning. Any technology that has high penetration into a segment of the population should be looked at closely to see if it can be leveraged for L&D purposes. Smart mobile devices fall very squarely into this category. Think about the following statistics. Some predictions put smartphones into 90% of adults’ hands by 2016 in the UK. In the US, 91% of the population is already using them with fast 3G/4G connectivity. 2014 was the year that the number of mobile users globally overtook the number of desktop computer users. The following table highlights recent tablet computer ownership in the US, UK and Australia. 1. It’s convenient and flexible If we accept that the adoption of mobile technologies is already high and likely to get higher as infrastructure and devices get faster, smarter and more affordable, why is this important in an L&D context? Consider these four reasons. Mobile learning (mlearning) happens on a smaller form-factor (screen) than conventional desktop elearning and is often undertaken by people on the go. This has encouraged instructional designers to embrace a bite-sized learning paradigm, i.e., smaller, specific learning sessions that are easy to digest, than they might design for a more conventional elearning audience. This highly granular approach gives mlearners great flexibility in what they learn and when they learn it. They don’t have to spend an hour going through a comprehensive course when they have access to a five-minute video that tells them the specific thing(s) they need to know. And this can happen on a device that learners are comfortable using, that’s always with them, always on—and increasingly one that their employer doesn’t have to purchase, maintain or upgrade! Sometimes learners don’t have access to desktops; so mobile is the only real alternative. This award-winning piece of mlearning that Elucidat created for Johnson & Johnson Vision Care (JJVC) was influenced by the fact that many time-poor practitioners didn’t have access to desktop computers in their workplaces. 2. It empowers learning any time, any place We know that learners forget a percentage of what they learn during a training session and that the percentage increases as more time passes between learning and applying the materials. Imagine these two learning situations where a learner has access to materials showing best practice in selling product X. By providing learning materials in a mobile format (i.e., delivery situation 2, above) when the learner needs them—wherever he or she is—the offering becomes more powerful. The course, or elements of it, can even be taken as a refresher on the way to a sales meeting. This just-in-time flexibility gives the learning a built-in context that embeds the information into long-term memory and gives it real significance and personalized emphasis. In addition, when learning is enabled at the point-of-need, learners are more likely to see the training as something useful rather than something they have to endure. 3. It enhances learner engagement and interaction As well as being available to learners at any time and in any place, mlearning can also incorporate features that conventional elearning can’t. For example, geolocation functionality on mobile devices can give learners a location-specific, highly contextualized learning experience. Imagine an induction piece of learning that adjusts itself automatically depending on the regional office you are in when using it. Another example is push notifications that alert or update learners even when the specific learning applications aren’t active. Think about how social media notifications on your phone grab your attention whether you’re in another app or not using your phone at all. The way learners interact with their mobile devices, using movement and hand gestures, gives a kinesthetic dimension to learning that can make it a more engaging and memorable experience. Just touching the screen to interact with buttons and other elements on a mobile device screen gives a more direct sense of interaction than moving a mouse and clicking. Lifesaver ‘Crisis Simulator’ from Unit9 is one of the best examples of this aspect of mlearning. 4. Ease of implementation It’s as easy to develop mlearning content as it is to create elearning. In fact, many modern rapid elearning authoring tools output content that is mobile ready and responsive to a wide range of screen sizes. This case study from Utility Warehouse describes how powerful and successful their authoring experience was—albeit after a few false starts! A colleague of mine conducted this simple experiment using nothing more than a mobile phone QR code reader. This is a good example of leveraging the power of mobile in a simple way to give learners an experience that would be difficult to replicate with conventional elearning. Related: 7 outstanding examples of responsive elearning In conclusion It’s important to remember that mlearning isn’t just the next generation replacement for elearning in the same way that elearning isn’t a replacement for face-to-face learning. It does make sense, however, to leverage technologies that lend themselves to your L&D objectives. In light of this, when you consider mobile’s . . . Penetration Availability at a learner’s point-of-need Potential for learner engagement Ease of content development . . . it’s easy to see why mlearning is an important innovation in the L&D industry. If you’ve seen examples of mlearning that made you go, "WOW!", share them with us in the comments section below. Stay on top of the latest eLearning ideas, trends, and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. The post Why mobile learning is important (4 reasons) appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Launch of our second suite ProductLineInSight for Compliance Building on the successful launch of Suite 1 comprising of 15 courses on Instructional Design for eLearning Professionals, our first set of 4 compliance courses [out of 10] that would benefit employees of any industry been released this February. The list includes: Introduction to the Code of Conduct Financial Integrity Combating Bribery in Business Competition Law We invite you for a preview of these courses. Do contact us if you want any further details or pricing. Highlights of ProductLine Suite 2 in terms of benefits to learners and organisation Learnability and immersive learning through appropriate strategy Retention of learning Higher learner satisfaction A better ROI for our customers Multi-device support and delivery Flexibility to customise and localize More, to reinforce application of learning: Performance Support Tools Innovative approaches [like gamification] Coming soon on Apple AppStore too. Highlights of ProductLine Suite 1 for Instructional Designers and other eLearning Professionals Features 3 bands: Theoretical facets of Instructional Design Application of theory into practice New and emerging trends in Instructional Design Followed proven strategies for better learnability Multi device access considering new age learners Read More Voices of happy customers: "I saw all the contents you shared with me and I’m quite impressed by the quality of these." "The courseware seems comprehensive and is well laid out. The presentation of material is well structured through the use of character-driven scenarios. Courses contain crisp graphics and audio, and have a solid emphasis on inline quizzes and knowledge checks." "I’ve reviewed EI Design InSight-ProductLine demos on Instructional Design Fundamentals, Writing Effective Storyboards, Creating Effective Assessments and Content Types and Their Visualisation Approaches. The content provides good and useful ideas and insights on both theories and methods behind measuring and assessing as well as writing storyboards."     The post Newsletter Feb2015 [InSight Newsletter] appeared first on EI Design.

Vision 2017 In the first week of March 2015, we set the ball rolling for "Vision 2017", laying out our business plan and organisational goals for the next two years. The initiative coincides with the completion of 15 years for us and pushes our goals to the next level. Under this mandate, we aim to: Strengthen our core capability of immersive learning designs Enhance our solution offerings to encompass "learning and performance solutions" Secure the "thought leadership" position in the global learning space Obtain CMMI L5 Create a "preferred work environment" We continue to focus on offering new innovative learning strategies and informal learning (featuring social learning as well as performance support intervention) leading to improved efficacy of training, which in turn will result in higher returns on investment for our customers. Our success leverages on our enthusiastic team and to make our company the most preferred workplace is what the management and the HR team envisages ardently. What’s New? Our concept of measurable and predictive learnability is now operational with the launch of ourCompetency Lab. The lab functions with an objective of developing a learner-centred design process based on quantitative and qualitative research to address the basic challenge in ensuring effective learning, that is, moving learners from acquisition to application of learning. In the process, Competency Lab is focused on differentiating our innovative next generation Instructional/Visual Design and Technology solutions in order to benefit diverse industry verticals and learners. Do contact us if you would like to know more about our Competency Lab and how our approach will benefit you. 13 Years of Success Excellence has been the hallmark all through our 13 years of victorious journey delivering so far, more than 5800 hours of eLearning, 410 hours of mLearning and 380 hours of localisation in 26 languages. The grand event to celebrate the completion of 13 successful years named "IGNITE 2015" was celebrated by the entire team on February 6, 2015. The musical evening was eventful with dance, rewards and screening of 5 fascinating short videos made by the team. Our success rests on how we stay poised with customer delight on one hand and trust that the leaders and the rest of the team avow on the other. Do contact us to consult our Solution Architecting team. New Website Launch Continuous research is the key for us to excel as one of the leading providers of innovative learning design solutions. The team is in the process of creating a new website to mark our transition to a comprehensive "learningand performance solutions" provider. Our new website scheduled to launch in April’15 will cover our latest solution concepts and benefit our partners, customers and prospects to select from a wide array of our services that align best to their needs. The post Newsletter Mar2015 appeared first on EI Design.

ProductLineInSight for Compliance 2014 was a historic year for us. It marked our transition from a professional services company offering custom learning solutions to the launch of our ProductLine Suite #1 comprising 15 courses for Instructional Designers and other eLearning professionals in June 2014. We have recently added ProductLine Suite #2 covering diverse aspects of generic Compliance through 10 courses, in March 2015. We invite you for a preview of these courses. Do contact us if you want any further details or pricing. How is ProductLineInSight for generic Compliance different? Multi-device support and delivery Keeping abreast of the global trends in multi-device support, our courses are designed to run seamlessly on PCs, laptops and tablets. Learning strategy Our learning strategy has been woven with a greater emphasis on scenarios. Our distinct objective of turning acquisition of knowledge to application of knowledge is served with an apt mix of theory and application. Flexibility to customise and localise Our courses offer the luxury of quick customisation and localisation (into 26 languages). The courses are flexible as well as easily scalable. The post Newsletter Mar2015 [InSight Newsletter] appeared first on EI Design.

Simple, Intuitive and Responsive Designs Gone are the days when complex-looking interfaces and designs appealed to the audience. Today, with myriad tasks demanding one’s attention, decision fatigue has set in among learners of all ages. It is vital that information is presented in a simple, intuitive and responsive mode, which is compatible with the learners’ preferred devices. At EI Design, we continuously analyse the pulse of learners. We have come up with a series of innovative design concepts to meet the demands of today’s learners. Write to us for a demo. www.eidesign.net - In Its New Avatar Our new website focuses on our brand identity as a futuristic learning and performance solutions provider. The new site showcases our innovative learning strategies and features a segment on the diverse industry verticals for which we cater our unique services. Unlike the earlier site that demonstrated full length courses, we have used succinct information and screenshots illustrating the challenges and solutions for quick navigation and easy access to reach out to us. Read about us and our solutions on our new website. Articles on CrossKnowledge Learning Wire CrossKnowledge, one of the world’s leading distance learning providers have designated us to publish articles on their blog Learning Wire where they release news and articles on the latest trends in digital learning and Instructional Design. The first of the series deals with the concept of ROI of eLearning from Organisational and Learner perspectives while the second demonstrates (with the help of a case study) how Performance Support Tools (PSTs) contribute to the Return on Investment. Bookmark the articles penned by Asha Pandey, CMD and Chief Learning Strategist at EI Design. What’s New? Earlier this year, nearly 30% of our team members received promotion (strictly on merit) to their next level of the growth path. This was possible through a structured performance enhancement plan that was implemented across the organisation last year. Following this inspirational success, the HCM team has deployed Organisational Training Framework (OTF) for 2015. This includes scores of our online courses, trainings from specialists, team engagement activities and so on. Another attraction is the launch of a game app intended at establishing the need for team members to be productive and conscious about quality, innovation and leadership. Do contact us for a walk through of our HCM practices. The post Newsletter May2015 appeared first on EI Design.

Gamification in eLearning is Trending It is an established fact that the information sticks much more to learners’ minds when an activity is associated as compared to what they hear or read. It is also proven that encouraging with competitive indication of scores, gifts, badges, virtual currencies and transitioning to higher game levels enthuse a learner for an immersive and prolonged learning experience. In this version of our newsletter, we provide a series of articles written by us that outline benefits ofGamification in eLearning and see how you can create immersive learning experience using this technique. Do contact us for further details. Top 6 Benefits Of Gamification In eLearning Gamification in eLearning helps create an effective learning system that enables learners to rehearse real-life scenarios and challenges in a safe environment. In this article, I will walk you through some of the benefits of Gamification for learners and how the experience of learning (recall and retention) can be enhanced through Gamification. Read the article Gamification In Learning Through An Avatar-based Serious Game Concept In one of my earlier articles published in eLearning Industry portal in Aug 2014, I had shared a case study on the benefits of Gamification in learning (through a serious game concept). In this article, I am sharing another case study using the same content (on Account Management Fundamentals) but re-designed using an Avatar-based approach. I will also share the gains that accrued with this enhanced approach. Read the article Partial Gamification and other innovative approaches in Compliance courses In this article, I will outline some of the innovative approaches we have adopted to create "sticky learning experiences" in Compliance courses. I will illustrate three of these approaches used in Compliance courses featuring Partial Gamification, Formative assessment strategy to visually highlight the impact of learners’ choices and Story-based learning. Read the article Gamification Of Compliance Training Through A Serious Game Concept As a Learning Strategist, I have been involved in the creation of several compliance training courses in the last 12 years. In all these years, we have built compliance training courses for some of the leading global organizations in Financial services, Insurance, Healthcare and several others in varied manufacturing sectors. Read the article Gamification In Learning: Featuring Gains Through A Serious Game Concept Wikipedia defines Gamification as "the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems". While Gamification has been applied in several domains, our focus has been on its application in learning. Research certainly confirms the advantages of learning through Gamification. Let me share a case study that compares the gains in learning achieved through serious game concept vs a traditional eLearning approach. Read the article The post Newsletter Aug2015 appeared first on EI Design.

Innovation in Learning Designs for Retention and Application of Learning Amongst the challenges that Learning and Development teams and Learning Consultants face today, the top 2 pertaining to training would be: How to increase the efficacy of training? What learning strategies should be adopted to ensure that the learning and business mandates are met? In this newsletter, we showcase our articles on innovative eLearning development that outline how we can address these challenges. We begin by looking at the "Forgetting Curve" and how this can be offset or changed to "Learning and Retention Curve" by adopting approaches that make learning sticky. We also look at application of innovative approaches particularly in Banking, Finance and Insurance sectors. While, the focus is on these industry verticals, you will find some of the approaches are equally relevant to other industry verticals as well. Top 5 Tips For Innovative eLearning Development In this article I will outline 5 tips for innovative eLearning development that will help organizations improve efficacy of training by making the learning stick. Read the article Innovative Training Solutions For Banking And Financial Services While Banking and Finance industries have been early adopters of eLearning, only in recent times is mLearning being considered. In this article, I will outline how mLearning can be one of the most meaningful training solutions for Banking and Financial Services. Additionally, I will share my insight on "learning as a continuum" and how eLearning or mLearning-based formal training can be effectively supplemented through Performance Support Tools (PSTs). Read the article 5 Innovative Training Strategies For Insurance That Work In today’s environment of economic volatility, increasing calamities (natural and man-made) and changing global dynamics, the Insurance sector needs to adopt training approaches that will help them equip their employees to manage these variables successfully. While the Insurance sector continues to grow, the Learning and Development professionals in this sector have challenges of addressing the external variables as well challenges that are intrinsic to the industry. In this article I will outline 5 of our innovative training strategies that have helped our customers in Insurance meet these challenges. Read the article The post InnovLearnSol Newsletter Oct2015 appeared first on EI Design.

Why Mobile Learning is a Smart Choice The popularity of mobile learning or mLearning continues to grow. Interestingly, integration of mobile devices into corporate learning strategies has been triggered largely by learners who want the flexibility of device they want to learn on. As a result, many corporates worldwide now have Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies in place and have embraced custom mobile learning or mLearning solutions in the last 2-3 years. In this Newsletter, we are sharing our articles on Mobile Learning that provide insight on: Benefits of Mobile Learning Benefits of custom Mobile Learning Common misconceptions about Mobile Learning To address the related need of migrating your legacy Flash courses to Mobile readiness (HTML5 support), we have another article that provides tips on how you can effectively migrate your existing courses to HTML5. What Are The Benefits Of mLearning? Featuring 5 Killer Examples In this article I will touch upon the benefits of mLearning, why it is gaining momentum, and why it must be a significant part of your learning strategy. Additionally, I will share 5 examples that showcase successful application of mLearning. Let us start with the benefits: Read the article The Benefits Of Custom Mobile Learning Solutions For Your Company In this article I will outline how custom mobile learning solutions can be used for primary learning (formal training) and informal learning (performance support intervention and social learning) to provide the required performance gain you seek. Read the article Custom Mobile Learning Solutions: 5 Common Misconceptions In this article I will outline five of the common misconceptions on custom mobile learning solutions. More specifically, I will share some pointers on how you can address some of these challenges and create an effective custom mobile learning solution that will work for you. Read the article The post mLearning Newsletter Oct2015 appeared first on EI Design.

WE ARE IN THE WORLD’S TOP 10 ELEARNING COMPANIES NOW! We take this opportunity to share our joy and excitement to be ranked second in eLearning Industry’s global listing of Top 10 eLearning Content Development Companies for 2015. This ranking reflects the recognition of the effort that we have put in for over a decade in creating learning and performance solutions for our customers. This would not have been possible without your support. Since inception in Feb’2002, our focus has been on "Energising Learning" and we have successfully sustained this through our Innovative learning design approaches. Our distinctive approaches keep learners intrigued and engaged. In addition, our learning strategies ensure that learners walk away from our courses with a clear sense of time well spent and a feeling of "accomplishment". This is a big step towards realisation of our Vision 2017, which marks the completion of our 15 years in business, pushing our goals to the next level. We are excited to share this great news and take this opportunity to reaffirm our resolve to continually innovate and offer enhanced value to all our customers and partners. The post Migration Newsletter Nov2015 appeared first on EI Design.

WE ARE IN THE WORLD’S TOP 10 ELEARNING COMPANIES NOW! We take this opportunity to share our joy and excitement to be ranked second in eLearning Industry’s global listing of Top 10 eLearning Content Development Companies for 2015. This ranking reflects the recognition of the effort that we have put in for over a decade in creating learning and performance solutions for our customers. Since inception in Feb’2002, our focus has been on "Energising Learning" and we have successfully sustained this through our Innovative learning design approaches. Our distinctive approaches keep learners intrigued and engaged. In addition, our learning strategies ensure that learners walk away from our courses with a clear sense of time well spent and a feeling of "accomplishment". This is a big step towards realisation of our Vision 2017, which marks the completion of our 15 years in business, pushing our goals to the next level. We are super excited to share this great news and look forward to an opportunity to work with you soon. The post Top 10 Customer Newsletter Oct2015 appeared first on EI Design.

Planning Migration of Legacy Courses to HTML5 You have decided to adopt mLearning (or mobile learning) and are ready to move your legacy courses to HTML5. Obviously, this involves a significant budget and you want to be certain that you have chosen the most efficient approach to migrate your legacy courses to HTML5. In this Newsletter, we share insights on: Understanding the power of HTML5 technology as well its challenges: Take a look at tips that you can use as you plan the migration of your Flash to HTML5. What is the right way to convert legacy courses into HTML5: Take a look at case studies that show successful conversions and how you could use some of these best practices. How To Convert Legacy Courses Into HTML5 The Right Way In this article, we are featuring two case studies that reflect dynamics that will resonate with most organizations and will provide the pointers on what approaches will help you design an efficient and effective migration strategy and convert legacy courses into HTML5 the right way. Read the article The post Top 10 Prospects Newsletter Oct2015 appeared first on EI Design.

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest" - Benjamin Franklin In the competitive workspace, it is imperative to continuously invest on learning so that we can quickly adapt to changing dynamics and changing expectations. With technological advancement, the world today has diverse sources and accesses to information. However, authenticity of information remains a concern. Our ProductLine "inSight" is an initiative intended to offer online courses for learning professionals to equip them with tools that will help them build a successful career. With this ammunition, they can quickly learn to apply the training material on the job, thereby gaining an edge over others. ProductLineinSight Suite #1 Our core expertise is Instructional Design. We have converted our expertise of Learning Strategy creation over the last decade into 15 online courses on Instructional Design. Through these courses, we aim to bridge the gap between Theory and its Application. These courses are available on OpenSesame portal and on Apple AppStore as Apps under the Instructional Design category. We stand for "Energising Learning". Have a joyful learning experience as you explore our online courses. Read MoreThe post Newsletter Dec2014 [InSight Newsletter] appeared first on EI Design.

Performance Enhancement Today, organisations seek higher Return on Investments (ROI) on formal training. They also realise that often training alone is not enough to improve performance. This is exactly where our enhanced services portfolio featuring specially designed Performance Support Solutions fits in. Through them, we assist transforming learners’ acquisition of knowledge to application of knowledge. Performance Support Tools (PSTs) Did you know that only about 10% of learning happens with formal training? This is why training alone is not enough for better performance. Performance Support Tools, in addition to reiterating the highlights of the training are designed for learners to apply the learning in the context of the nature of their job. The PSTs that we have designed have resulted in higher ROI for our customers re-affirming our capabilities to ensure the efficacy of learning as well as improved predictability on the ROI. Do contact us if you would like to know more about these success stories and how we could create a few for you. Read More Our Recent Webinars As part of our knowledge sharing plan, we have walked our partners and prospects through our research, focus areas and learning in the Nov-Dec’14. For ease of knowledge sharing, we have developed collaterals featuring multiple dimensions of our exploration and strategies adapt. The outcomes that are Gamification in learning and the approaches we implemented to catalyse learning. Do contact us if you would like us to schedule one of these especially for you and your team. Our Corporate Quality Certification Endeavour (CMMi L3) The quality certification initiative that we had initiated in last year has started bearing fruits in terms of the consistency in productivity and predictability in the quality of outputs at various stages of product development. We believe this is the "icing on the cake" that will take our already mature development practice (13 years old!) to next level and enable us to grow at much faster pace over next 3 years. In 2016, we will step this up to aim for L5 that focuses on continually improving process performance particularly through adoption of innovative approaches. Spirit of Innovation is part of EI Design’s DNA and we look forward to reaching this milestone next year. The post Newsletter Feb2015 appeared first on EI Design.

  This is a guest post by Amy Fiedler, a district  administrator for the Central New York Regional Information Center in Syracuse, NY.  Last week, I attended a workshop with about 50 fellow educators.  As […] The post Mattering is the Only Agenda appeared first on Angela Maiers.

Although it might seem absurd to design training without the end user in mind, an audience analysis is an extremely important yet often overlooked element of instructional design. Before creating an eLearning course, you should find out as much as possible about your learners. This information should directly impact your design and content choices. For example, the experience levels of the audience will affect the types of activities incorporated in the course. During the eLearning audience analysis stage of design, it is important to think of your learners as a group of individuals with specific goals. Remember, demographic profiles of your target audience do not always paint the complete picture. You have to look beyond statistics like age, educational qualification, and occupation to understand the learner. Your learner is a sum of his or her past experiences, desires, aspirations, and expectations. Their learning styles and media preferences are shaped by their familiarity with and access to technology. Their cultural upbringing influences their perception of symbols, images, words, or analogies. Learners are a complex and multi-dimensional human beings; just a few numbers do not define them.  Here are five ways you can get to know your eLearning course target audience:

The world is in the middle of a technological boom, with steadily increasing emphasis on developing new technologies in all sectors of the economy in order to increase overall productivity. Education is one such sector, and a growing number of schools are now relying on school scheduling software to better organize their information. A lot of time is wasted in schools by manual administration such as attendance records, inventory management and lesson planning. School scheduling software automates all of these processes and ensures students spend more time learning. This provides knock-on benefits to the school and to the economy as a whole as students and staff spend their time in class efficiently ensuring each student gets the maximum out of his/her education. It is difficult though to know exactly what qualities you should seek out when selecting the appropriate scheduling software and there are a plethora of options currently available on the market. Therefore, here are three qualities you and your school should look out for in any effective scheduling software solution: Security: This is a top priority because school principals and stakeholders need to keep their information discreet and secure. Any effective scheduling software will provide multi-tiered password protection ensuring that sensitive information is seen by only authorized personnel. Keeping track of inventory expenses and school admission fees is of paramount importance and it is vital that the software you choose is highly secure. It is also highly likely that any scheduling software will integrate staff salaries and provide automatic payment so the emphasis on a secure platform needs to be strong. Providing multi-tiered levels of security means that any school administrators can set the security level for each individual user. Simplicity: The whole point of using school scheduling software is that all elements of the administration process are streamlined into one solution ensuring that less time is wasted and more focus is put on learning. The key driver of an effective software platform is that it should be simple to use. Teachers will most likely be responsible for entering information such as attendance and grade records and students will be able to view their own grades so it is crucial that any software utilized is uncomplicated. Schools should be looking out for solutions with a simple user interface and clarity of options. Like any automated software, it needs to be more simple and concise than doing the work manually. Customizable: An excellent scheduling software is often defined by the level of customization available. It is important that schools can design and customize timetable to their own specific needs and preferences. Schools should look out for features such as custom fonts and logos in order to give their timetables and official reports a specific professional look. Additionally, the ability to automatically reschedule planned meetings and conferences is important. If a student needs to retake a test or a staff meeting needs to be postponed, this can throw the whole school schedule out of kilter for days on end. With effective software, all meetings should automatically be rearranged around each staff or student’s availability at that particular time.   The post Qualities of an Effective Scheduling Software for School appeared first on Fedena Blog.

It’s almost winter break! That means a forecast of no school, lots of snow, and plenty of down time with family, friends, and loved ones. For bookworms, the winter holidays are the perfect time to catch up on reading, but not without a few adjustments for the demands of winter. For every bookworm that’s heading home for the holidays, here are just a few winter woes that are all too real: 1. Trying to read while it’s snowing. 2. Trying to turn the page while wearing gloves and realizing it’s nearly impossible. 3. Freezing your hands off because you decided to take off your gloves so you could turn the pages of your book more easily. 4. Accidentally burning holiday pies and cookies because you’re too absorbed in the novel you’re reading. 5. Shopping for other people’s holiday gifts and getting distracted by all the books you want to buy for yourself. 6. Trying to figure out how to subtly tell all your relatives that you really just want books for the holidays, instead of hand-knitted socks and a salad spinner you will never use. 7. Trying to read while all your relatives keep asking you, "what are you reading?" "how is school?" "what are you doing with your life?" 8. Browsing a bookstore while carrying a giant parka and trying not to knock anything over. 9. Making a snow angel, then realizing you had a book in your pocket and now it’s damp. 10. Sweating through your winter coat, hat, and scarf when you go indoors because you don’t want to take them off in case you lose your place in your book. 11. Trying to read and walk at the same time, while also looking out for treacherous icy patches on the sidewalk. 12. Trying to read through fogged up glasses when you drink hot cocoa. 13. Finishing every book you brought home for the holidays and wondering what to do with yourself. 14. Reading novels about warm places and realizing you don’t remember what the sun feels like. 15. Reading novels about other families and realizing your own is not so crazy after all. What will you be reading over the winter holidays?