Compliance training can be a boring topic for your learners. Spice it up and draw inspiration from these two award-winning elearning solutions. Connect Group: The Golden Rules The Golden Rules elearning course, developed by Make Sense Design, replaces 20,000 words of written material with engaging interactive content. We really like the combination of humor and gamification to encourage learners to interact with the content. Also, did we mention it won silver at the 2014 ELearning Awards! Why we like it: Immersive and engaging approach in order to create memorable learning experience. Good use of humour, games, leaderboards and strong visual design to grab attention and motivate learners to interact with the course. Responsive, mobile-friendly design Visit elearning: Connect Group’s The Golden Rules Tesco: Learning Leap Tesco and Sponge UK won bronze for Learning Leap in the 2014 Elearning Awards. This solution is an example of using previous course data and feedback to help design a new and improved programme. Why we like it: Uses a fun and easy to understand narrative where learners are represented as a parachutist getting ready to jump into the learning (Leapers) Utilizes gaming techniques such as real-time, animated leaderboards showing the number of learners at each stage of the training. The first finishers get a reward and line managers receive weekly emails telling them how well their team is doing. Once the main elearning is completed, staff receive bi-monthly emails, known as ‘PiPs’ or ‘Putting into Practice’; micro-learning quizzes related to the course topics, linked to web pages containing feedback and job aids to help reinforce the learning and provide an opportunity for people to put their training into practice. Visit elearning: Tesco’s Learning Leap The post Compliance training examples: Tesco and Connect Group appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Elearning Superstars is a curated list of inspiring elearning examples, published every Tuesday. Subscribe to get weekly updates via email.   Cursim: One page scrolling   This is a great example of a course that uses one page scrolling to deliver learning. Visit elearning: Cursim’s one page scrolling Konworks: 2D & 3D animation studio   Visit elearning: Konworks’ animation studio Tesco: Learning leap Tesco and Sponge UK won bronze for Learning Leap in the 2014 Elearning Awards. This solution is an example of using previous course data and feedback to help design a new and improved programme.   Visit elearning: Tesco’s Learning Leap Connect Group: The Golden Rules The Golden Rules elearning course, developed by Make Sense Design, replaces 20,000 words of written material with engaging interactive content. We really like the combination of humor and gamification to encourage learners to interact with the content. Also, did we mention it won silver at the 2014 ELearning Awards!   Visit elearning: Connect Group’s The Golden Rules Showcase your elearning Have you created a great piece of elearning that you’re really proud of? Showcase your elearning here to win awards and get published on Elearning Superstars.   Elearning inspiration: Cursim, Konworks, Tesco, Connect GroupClick To Tweet The post Elearning inspiration: Cursim, Konworks, Tesco, Connect Group appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Bringing the glad tidings that my favourite animation tool seems to be coming back! Xtranormal was a hugely popular video making tool with hundreds of teachers making videos for free, choosing characters, scenes, camera angles and really achieving a very professional looking outcome. Until they went bust. Despite its popularity, Xtranormal was not able to go on as a company and quietly went under about two or three years ago.  Some of the reasons have to do with the numerous free accounts and the cost of the huge amount of space they needed in order to store all these free videos. Read my related post here about free services. For a long time there was silence - complete silence about why or what was to happen. Until, almost two years ago, a new site redirected from the old site gave some hope. It looks like good news for now - the new service called nawmal is about to launch in December 2015 Watch their promo - it looks as good as it used to be and although it won’t come cheap, there is a lower price for schools and educators or students. Given the technology it takes to get done, I am not surprised. It looks like the same technology and they do have some affordable pricing plans for schools       ____________________________________________________________________________________  Camera Angles, Backgrounds, Effects and more! Using these animations and camera angles, faceless coursebook dialogues could come to life and student dialogues could be turned into great sketches. ELT teachers are not the only […]

Inarguably, one of the most valuable assets a company has is the knowledge and expertise that lives in the heads of seasoned employees. Their sharp know-how has been acquired over years of hands-on, in-the-field experience, and they’ve acted as examples and advisors to countless other employees. There is often concern over what to do when those high performing team members retire or choose to move on to another opportunity. The aging population has company leaders scrambling to address what’s become known as knowledge retention. Not only are you losing a valuable team member, but how do you extract that knowledge and pass it on to others? In some cases, that person might be the only one who knows what he knows. And he does have a job to do. He can’t be everywhere at once spending time mentoring and coaching everyone else. No, there has to be a more efficient way. Rest assured, there is a more efficient way, and it involves leveraging technology to make information more widely available. We’ve helped many companies set up and apply powerful knowledge sharing tools to shrink the knowledge gap and improve knowledge retention. The benefits go beyond departing employees. Cooperative learning has proven to be one of the most effective ways to spread knowledge within a group. People are more likely to listen to what their peers have to say than someone who isn’t doing the same job. What are the components of a typical knowledge sharing platform? You’ll commonly find: A content library to fill with how-to videos, step-by-step job aids, infographics, charts and photos so that users can find helpful material whenever they need it. Social sharing capabilities to allow your employees to collaboratively share learning content with one another. A discussion board where users can connect to ask or answer questions, while others benefit from reading the conversations. A messaging tool to create and send communications to users about new or updated content. A reporting mechanism to monitor timely content consumption. The hardest part, of course, is assembling learning content to make sure what you have is relevant and helpful to users. Recognize that while you might have a lot of training collateral, some of it might need to be repurposed or updated to make the knowledge sharing platform work as well as it can. Now, you need to turn to your seasoned veterans. Ask their opinion of existing training materials, or how training is currently conducted. They’ve probably witnessed a lot of training throughout their career and can offer valuable insight. Enlist their help in editing content so that it’s up-to-date. Depending on when it was written or who the original writer was, it might require adjustments in accuracy, tone or format. Interview them to uncover anything that might be missing from the current library. Anyone handling instructional design or the creation of learning content should sit down with veteran employees to pick their brain about new training opportunities. Ask for their support in helping other employees adapt to the new platform. By engaging them at the beginning, you’ll have their buy-in to help encourage others to use it. This "knowledge harvesting" process gives you a wealth of training material that is team-sourced rather than pushed down from the top. Then as a manager, training manager or admin, you can optionally curate this content into the correct forms and format for learners to absorb. Once knowledge sharing is put in place, training will be easier to maintain and update, and with everyone having access to the same information, the knowledge gap will be much smaller. You can see an example here. How has your company overcome the knowledge gap? Leave a comment below! Photo Credit: ryancr

Have you ever been inside a salesperson’s mobile office? By that, I mean...her car? It’s often full of stuff - sales collateral, contracts and other documentation, product brochures, samples, tchotchkes, and a large binder or three of company- or job-related info she might need to reference at a moment’s notice. You know, one of those things you put together when you’re feeling super organized, then rarely touch ever again. Let’s clean up that mobile office, and make the sales team smarter and more empowered at the same time. eLearning and mobile performance support puts everything a salesperson might need right at their fingertips. Salespeople have a lot they need to know, and it’s unrealistic to expect them to commit it all to memory. We can now give them a simple way to find new or refresher learning material when they need it most. Here are just a few common sales activities we can support with mobile learning. 1. Maintaining the CRM: Not every CRM is the most intuitive piece of software, and your company probably has specific guidelines for how it is to be used. Learning software is not always high on salespeople’s priority list, but if they are given quick-reference material to jog their memory on specific tasks, they are more likely to comply, making your customer database cleaner and more up-to-date. Some of these tasks include: Adding new contacts Updating call notes Changing contact status Adding customer service preferences 2. Submitting expense reports and receipts: Not all sales teams are fortunate enough to have a support person to handle this for them. Even if your company has a very systematic approach to submitting and processing expenses, employees could likely use some refresher material on how to complete the process, keeping the books current and avoiding an accumulation of undocumented expenses. 3. Learning new products and product features: A company’s product portfolio is an evolving entity, with updates to features, bug fixes and new product launches happening on the regular. A salesperson needs to be up to speed on these changes, and the quickest way to deliver that information is through eLearning. 4. Negotiating price with potential clients: As a manager, you want your highest-producing reps to feel empowered to negotiate price in order to close a deal … but not at the expense of the bottom line! Give your reps tools they can have on their iPad that review what volume-based price they are allowed to offer prospects, as well as selling the value of your products. Very few companies win by competing on price alone. 5. Target audience research: Marketing and sales departments both conduct target audience research, and it’s important that this information is aligned between the two. Knowledge sharing platforms that are accessible on mobile devices allow everyone to access the same information, and find out about updates as they happen. 6. New-hire orientation and training: When a new rep joins your sales team, they have a lot to learn. Very little of it will be retained if you try to teach it all at once during orientation. Instead, send learning opportunities their way in bite-sized chunks, and make sure they know that this information is available to them anytime for a refresh. Modern eLearning technology is transforming how salespeople are trained, coached and held accountable for applying what they’ve learned. We no longer need to expect them to retain everything covered during orientation. Knowledge can be reinforced over time and made available in a just-in-time fashion, meaning that the employee has access to the content they need at the exact time they need it. If you’re ready to learn more about how eLearning can support your sales team, schedule an assessment with our team! photo credit: Adam Tuttle

We are incredibly proud to be included on the Weatherhead 100 list of Upstarts for 2014! If you haven’t heard of it, Case Western Reserve University is located in Cleveland, Ohio, not far from our home in Akron. It’s one of the top schools in the country and is recognized especially for the Weatherhead School of Management. Each year, the Weatherhead School celebrates entrepreneurship in Northeast Ohio by assembling a list of the fastest-growing companies based here in the area. Last night, nine members of the Expand team attended the awards dinner, donning our finest, to rub elbows with other winners and accept our award. We’re thrilled to be included, and are honored to be keeping company with so many great companies from our hometown and nearby. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well here, and it was very apparent how much the area means to local business owners, who are passionate about sustaining growth and creating jobs. To be included, companies need to demonstrate continued growth over a 5 year period, and we’re very proud we’ve met the criteria. Below are a few of our favorite photos from the evening!

What test, you ask? The success test. Does it work? Does the audience like it and find it helpful? How do you know? Your course is never really done, even if you’ve clicked the publish button. It needs occasional preening and polishing to stay relevant, effective and keep up with an ever-changing environment. But that doesn’t mean it has to be a 3-month project. There are many quick updates you make in a day or two that will have an immediate impact on the the performance of your course and results. There’s always room for improvement. Here are 7 things you can address to quickly improve an eLearning course. Make it shorter. We all know how attention spans are nowadays. Take a look at your course and see if there’s any "fat" you can trim to make it shorter. Something almost always jumps out when viewed with a fresh set of eyes. Replace cheesy clipart or stock photography. Generally, free clipart or stock photos are not only lame, but send a message that the training content was hastily slapped together. Graphics and photography are great, but should enhance what’s on the screen. Break up busy or content-heavy slides. Look over each slide/screen of your course and break apart any that are too content-heavy. Limit each slide to one idea with a supporting visual. Add an assessment. If you haven’t, you want to add at least one assessment question or exercise to help gauge whether the course is effective. Is the audience comprehending the material presented? Collect feedback. Find out what your audience thought of your course. Did they find it helpful? Did they learn something new? Will they be able to apply the new knowledge in their jobs? Follow up after training. It’s not a safe assumption that your learners will remember everything covered in your course, or that they know how to apply it. It’s important to follow up. Create a few pieces of reminder content or post-training assessment questions and keep in touch with the audience in the weeks/months immediately following the training. Review your learning objective. Don’t have a learning objective? Create one! If your course was created with an objective in mind, review it. Does it still make sense for your organization and your audience? Is your course meeting it? It’s okay (and encouraged) to make adjustments as needed. It also helps to get outside perspectives. Just as it’s recommended to ask someone to proofread a piece of writing, if you’ve authored an eLearning course, your perspective won’t be as fresh as someone who did not work on the project with you. Don’t hesitate to ask others for suggestions on how to implement any of the improvements listed above. While you may have people at your disposal within your organization to help, it can also help to talk to an eLearning or Instructional Design consultant. Let us be of service! If you want to improve upon an existing course, our team is happy to take a look. Get in touch today, and we’ll set something up. photo credit: Seven

When we’re talking to a new client, we like to learn as much as we can about the training program they currently have in place. A really important part of that discussion is "How’s it working?" And even more important, "How do you know?" That second question is a tough one to answer. At most organizations, if anyone is bothering to figure out whether a training course is actually doing anything (in terms of improving performance) they’re relying largely on anecdotal evidence. We found some telling statistics on eLearning Measurement in a study published by The eLearning Guild. Take a look. 87.5% of organizations participating in the study tracked completions. Good start, but the numbers go down from there. Only 64.7% asked assessment questions to test memory recall. 65.2% tracked learner satisfaction, but… Only 49.1% measured whether the learner felt the training was of value. At best, 28.6% tracked whether learners successfully applied training material in a real-world setting. About 15% tracked successful real-world application. 31.7% monitored changes in performance, while about 20% measured business impact in terms of ROI. 10% tracked nothing. Nothing! So, 80% of the organizations that participated in the study couldn’t answer the two questions I posed at the beginning of this post. Yikes... Completions and satisfaction data is useful information and we aren’t here to question its value, but it offers a very limited view of how successful a course actually is. A course with high satisfaction ratings isn’t necessarily effective...it just means the audience liked it. Strong assessment scores suggest audience members learned a lot from the course, but it doesn’t capture whether they are applying it on-the-job. It doesn’t tell us whether there has been sustained behavioral change as a result of the course in the weeks and months following completion. Prove To The Higher-Ups That Training Works We feel quite strongly about the importance of robust eLearning measurement, so we set out to build measurement tools into our eLearning software platform, ExpandShare. We look at measuring course effectiveness as a pyramid that builds on Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation. You can see Satisfaction and Learning there on the bottom, and that we’ve added three additional areas we feel are important to determining the true success of an eLearning program. Measuring Confidence in eLearning Take a step beyond simply measuring Satisfaction. Again, Satisfaction tells us whether an audience enjoyed the course, but Confidence digs a little deeper. By measuring Confidence, we uncover whether the audience members feel better equipped to do their job (or complete a specific task, etc.) as a result of taking the offered eLearning. Measuring Behavioral Changes in eLearning We offer training because we want people to do things a certain way, right? They need to be taught the steps as well as the reason for doing things a certain way. Considering this is why we have training in the first place, it’s really interesting to look at the study mentioned above and realize how few organizations actually measure it. Simulations and assessments are great to determine if your audience is getting the idea. These tools aren’t a surefire indicator audience members will continue to apply course knowledge in the real world. We need to continue monitoring and testing their application of the course material in the weeks and months following course completion. Measuring Results in eLearning Now comes the hard part. The most valuable measure organizations can track is overall impact. Is the business seeing results from training? Results are often defined differently by different organizations. It could mean growth in sales or ROI, increased unit sales, decreased equipment downtime, less employee overtime… It depends on the organization’s unique definition of success. But ultimately, if we can’t definitively say training efforts are making a difference, we run the risk of wasting resources. We’re not serving our ultimate purpose, either. Does your training team measure the impact of your training? Leave a comment below and let us know what success indicators you monitor, and how your findings inform the creation of future eLearning courses. Don’t keep producing training that isn’t based on actionable data gathered from past and current efforts. Prove your training works. We can help! photo credit: Lots of yardage

Having likely worked in retail in our younger days, many of us know that most retail jobs are very process-oriented. They’re usually pretty simple for the most part. Clear instructions for how to best complete these simple tasks have are explained and the employee’s first week on the job involves reviewing those instructions, which they’re supposed to commit to memory until they can perform them in their sleep. Most employees are able to do that for tasks they perform every time they are on the job. Frequent repetition makes it easy to memorize those processes quickly. But let’s look at some training challenges retail establishments encounter with employees: a brand new—or recently changed—process needs to be taught to current employees an underperforming employee needs some help learning and remembering the correct processes some processes aren’t performed regularly (perhaps weekly or even monthly) so opportunities for application aren’t frequent In each of these situations, what’s needed is practice. The more an employee can practice the steps of a process, the better they will get and the more likely they will remember it. Training alone—the transfer of knowledge—doesn’t allow for practice. Training is important, but in order to drive real behavioral change (in this case, helping all employees complete current processes correctly) we need to place emphasis on application and practice. Impactful Exercises for Knowledge Application Scenarios and simulations are powerful tools to test whether learners are able to take what they are learning and turn it into actionable on-the-job results. After initial training, if we send employees back to their jobs in the real world, we can’t be certain they’re applying what they’ve learned - correctly or even at all. Studies Prove the Importance of Practice Source: "Edgar Dale's cone of learning" by Jeffrey Anderson It’s been well-documented by models such as Edgar’s Cone of Experience that "people generally remember 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see...and 90% of what they do." The case for adding application and practice exercises to training courses is strong. Scenarios, simulations and real-time application are not created equal, however, and each come with their own set of reasonable expected outcomes. It’s important to know the differences so you can choose the right type of exercise for your audience. Understanding the Difference Between Scenarios, Simulations and Real-time Application Scenarios are often completed as part of a training course, and often describe a fictional, realistic-but-simplified situation an employee might find herself in on-the-job. The employee is then asked questions to assess her ability to choose the correct course of action. They are beneficial in their ease of measurement and relative ease of inclusion in a training course - whether eLearning or ILT (instructor-led training). Simulations more closely resemble the real world, and can be built electronically using games or virtual reality or a staged, physical environment. The point is to—as accurately and detailed as possible—recreate a situation an employee has or will encounter and ask her to work through it. There is more involved in building a simulation than a scenario, but it’s the closest you can get to real, on-the-job experience without associated risk. Rather self-explanatory, real-time application occurs when the employee is actually on the job. The case can be made that this is the best way to learn a process, but it does come with a certain degree of risk letting an employee practice on real customers, systems or machines. Even the best crafted scenarios and simulations can’t fully replace real-world experience. However, there are many processes and procedures that are too important to not use any kind of applied learning. You’ll want to consider these factors before choosing an applied learning approach for your retail employees. Does your company use scenarios or simulations in employee training? What results and feedback have you realized from your retail employees who have participated in these types of applied learning exercises? Leave us a comment below; we’d love to hear about your experience.   photo credit: via photopin (license)

Regardless of whether your training is online or instructor-led, it’s really important to collect and analyze audience feedback data. The audience we’re talking about today is franchisees; most likely new franchisees who are in the process of learning how to run a successful operation at one of your company’s stores. For a franchisee, franchise training is a make-or-break matter. Your company has put together a tried-and-true, detailed system for store success and a franchisee who fails to learn and apply the system as directed will struggle. But how do you know the training program is working? Training feedback. Let’s talk about a few different types of feedback you should be collecting from your training programs. 5 Ways to Collect Useful Feedback from Franchisee Training Ask Satisfaction & Confidence questions. Do franchisees like the course? The temptation to think this doesn’t matter is real, but in a world of constant distractions, training has to hold franchisees’ attention. It needs to be interesting, well-executed and even entertaining. Do they feel it was a good use of time? If not, they are less likely to apply what you’ve tried to teach. Was it too long, too short or just right? Let them channel their inner Goldilocks. Too long and attention spans waver. Too short, and knowledge transfer can’t take place. What device did they use to access the course and how was that experience? Look for trends in device-preference. Do they feel more confident in their knowledge and ability having taken the training? Because liking a course isn’t enough. Ask Assessment questions. Comprehension - Are franchisees able to demonstrate that they’ve understood the material as presented? Application - Using scenarios, simulations and real-world application, are they able to correctly apply what they’ve learned? Ask them again. Don’t just ask once; ask the same questions in different ways to improve feedback validity. Ask them frequently. Don’t put all of your questions at the end of your course. You’ll overwhelm your franchisees (who are probably anxious to get back to their new business) and they may be tempted to rush through the questions. Instead, scatter them throughout the training after each module, or even interspersed within a module for specific, immediate feedback. Ask them after-the-fact. Follow up after training is complete. Do the franchisees remember what was taught? Are they applying knowledge correctly to running their location(s)? It’s one thing to be able to answer comprehensive and application questions immediately following a training module. It’s another to still answer them correctly weeks and months after training’s end. Using Feedback to Make Training Programs Better Franchisee feedback on training programs is useful in a number of ways. Below are just a few ideas for using this data once you’ve collected it. Identify where edits and adjustments to course content are needed. Identify where new courses should be created. Identify application exercises that did or didn’t work and make adjustments as needed. Determine your plan for follow-up, performance support and coaching. Optimize content for different devices based on actual device usage. Start to measure the true impact of your training. Is it changing behaviors? How is it affecting overall business performance? For example, this could be measured by point-of-sale activities like collecting customer email addresses, store performance on inspections and sales growth. How has audience feedback impacted training program development at your organization? What metrics have you found especially valuable? We’d love to hear from you; leave a comment below! photo credit: Mandolin chord: C

Each September brings excitement for die-hard TV watchers and armchair red carpet fashion critics as the Emmy awards celebrate outstanding achievements in acting, directing, producing and more. This September was doubly exciting for me and the entire team at Expand. Shouting from my couch, I cheered as Jon Hamm finally (finally!) won an Emmy for his portrayal of Don Draper on possibly the greatest television drama of all time, Mad Men. On another September day, Eric and I cheered from the Expand conference room as Expand took home not just one, but three Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards in our first year of applying. The team here deserves it, too. They work hard. They are endlessly creative and resourceful, and produce incredible results on varying budgets. They genuinely care about the success of our clients and about their craft, whether it’s design, development or programming. So what did we win? We won three awards that perfectly encompass everything we do, from consulting to eLearning development to software. Gold - Best Sales Training Program for Extended Enterprise Silver - Best Advance in Custom Content Bronze - Best Advance in Learning Technology Implementation We’re in incredible company, too. You can check out the full list of winners on Brandon Hall’s website. If you’d like to take a closer look at some of our work, let us know and we’d be happy to give you a personal demonstration!

We all have aspects of our jobs we don’t enjoy, and the time we must spend on those things is often done reluctantly and half-heartedly. Unfortunately, training sometimes falls under this umbrella despite its importance, so it’s critical to make training programs as engaging, useful, and even fun, as possible. Some leaders may be tempted to take the position of, "I don’t care if they like it or not, if they want to own a franchise, they have to do it." And that’s true, but doesn’t really sound like the foundation of a great business relationship, does it? A good franchise training program is one that franchisees value, want to participate in and are even excited about. But what if they secretly hate it? How do you know, and what do you do about it? In a recent post, we talked about the importance of getting all different kinds of feedback from your franchisees about the training program. But there are signs there’s a problem with the training program that, while more subtle, are quietly throwing up a red flag that isn’t captured in feedback data. Below are some commonly seen examples. It’s gotten harder to recruit the top-notch franchisees. The best people want to be part of the best organizations, and many studies have concluded that training and support programs are in very high demand. Franchisee turnover has increased. If the rate of franchisee turnover has increased, it’s crucial to find out why. It could be any number of things and you should be asking departing franchisees while they are leaving. Be sure to ask for their opinion on the training program, and whether it was a factor in their decision to move on. Engagement has declined. Does a franchisee just seem distant lately? Is attendance and participation declining? Are more franchisees starting to find their own ways of doing things rather than following the system? Franchisees aren’t following the system. The system is there for a reason, but if franchisees aren’t inclined to follow it, you need to find out why. It could be that the system needs updated, but it could also mean the franchisees don’t know it well. That indicates a training issue. New franchisees consistently struggle to get their business off the ground. When franchisee struggles increase or become a steady pattern, it could mean the training and support system is lacking in some way. If Red Flags Are Spotted, What Can Be Done? If you’re watching for these telltale signs and start to notice a trend, you’ll want to take corrective action. First, make sure the training program is indeed a culprit, and the quickest way to do that is simply ask. If and when you’re confident the training program is indeed the problem, explore ways to fix it. In a previous post, we explored possible culprits for why franchise training isn’t working, and how to fix it. Some of those include: length relevance accessibility tone and more Click over there next and give that post a read, because it will get you on a path to putting out better training for franchisees. You can also sign up for a free training assessment with one of our experts. He or she will talk through the current training program with you and offer suggestions on how to make it stronger and more successful. Get started today! photo credit: Caution Line

  Thanks to our ever-shortening attention spans, things just keep getting smaller, shorter and broken into pieces. Music isn’t consumed by the album anymore; it’s downloaded song-by-song. Rather than reading a newspaper cover-to-cover, we use news aggregation apps and social media sites like Twitter to quickly scan headlines. Magazines are consumed article-by-article more than issue-by-issue. And we might be doing two or more of these things at once, on our smartphone in line at the grocery store or coffee shop. Without question, we are a people on the go facing a never-ending barrage of information. Learning, too, has been impacted by the mincing of content into smaller and smaller pieces. It started when full-day, instructor-led training classes were repackaged into an eLearning course that could be completed in an hour or two. Now, microlearning is taking eLearning even further. Microlearning Supports Continuous Training and Development We all agree that continuous learning is a good thing, right? Any individual can take responsibility for his or her own continuous learning through books, articles and webinars. But as a company, you need to add structure to make sure employees are getting the training they need to do their jobs well. Microlearning is a way to overcome the attention-span deficit and increase training effectiveness by making learning part of a regular routine. Companies are finding that rather than sit someone in a chair for two days, one day or even just an hour, peppering them with complex information, it helps to break content into pieces to be consumed and digested a little bit at a time. Microlearning supports continuous learning through the delivery of training and knowledge items at regular intervals. When done right, it can be accessed anytime, anywhere, from any device. As with most training methodologies, there are pros and cons to consider before launching a microlearning campaign. Six Reasons to Try Microlearning at Your Organization Microlearning puts more power and control in the hands of the learners. It lets them choose when, where and what device, so they can learn over lunch at a cafe using their smartphone, or on the computer at their desk when they first arrive in the morning. Delivering training in small chunks is a great way to adapt to common behaviors of today’s audiences, which has yielded a lot of multitasking and short attention spans. Focusing on granular topics one at a time can reduce confusion or information overload. It allows the learner to focus solely on one topic, absorb it and digest it before diving into the next topic. Information inevitably changes, and it’s incredibly easy to update segmented microlearning modules and redistribute them as needed. No need to take an entire eLearning course over again just because one piece of information has changed. As learners quickly move through each brief module, there’s a sense of accomplishment as modules are completed and they are able to immediately apply what they’re learning. Microlearning makes repeating lessons incredibly easy. Content can be revisited as needed. Microlearning May Not Be For Everyone If you were reading the Microlearning pros above and nodding enthusiastically, that’s great! But there are a few considerations that are important to consider before diving in head first. In order for microlearning to work, it has to be done well. Production quality must be high. It must be engaging and, ideally, device-agnostic. Technical demands could be higher than you’re used to, especially if you want to develop for mobile. Discuss internal resources and capabilities before proceeding. You may need to outsource some of the development work. If it’s important that a series of microlearning "bursts" need to be understood in context with each other, plan each module and its timing carefully. You want to make sure learners are grasping each concept but also connecting the dots to create the bigger picture. Does your organization use microlearning? How are you using it and what results have you seen? Would you recommend it to other organizations? Leave us a comment below, we’d love to hear your experience. photo credit: via photopin (license)

We and others have pointed out the similarities between training and marketing. Both involve communicating a message to a select audience. Both provide helpful information to the audience members. Both have the end goal of persuading audience members to take a certain course of action as a result of the communication.  In the case of marketing, we want that consumer to buy our product, or at least get in touch to learn more. In training, we want to change on-the-job behavior. We want our audience to buy into an idea or perform a particular task in a certain way. Most importantly, both require an in-depth understanding of that audience. Without it, none of the other things will happen. We won’t get our message across. They won’t change behaviors or take the desired action. Those of us who design and build training courses absolutely must create for the user. What do they want in a training program? Every audience is different. What Makes Franchisees Different From Possibly Any Other Training Audience? Whereas other training audiences are specialists in one business function or another (e.g. operations, sales, etc.) franchisees are unique. They need to be business generalists with an entrepreneurial fire. They may come to your franchise from all different backgrounds. And this is why, as a franchisor, you have The System. You may have a different name for it, but it’s the detailed program that covers every single thing a franchisee needs to know about the brand and how to open and run a location. Franchisees are different because They have to learn a greater breadth of information, from marketing to operations to finance. Even seasoned franchisees with experience in these areas need to learn them within the context of your brand. The stakes are high. They’ve invested a good sum of money to buy into the franchise. While this drives motivation, it can also make a franchisee more likely to stray from the system if he or she hasn’t learned it well and needs to solve a problem. What do franchisees want in a training program? Accessible & Repeatable - In-person training programs at the company headquarters or at an existing store can be very powerful, but they’re packed with information. If a new franchisee needs to review a topic, how easily is that done? Searchable - If after-training support materials are made available, how quickly can they be searched to find a specific topic of interest? Provides ongoing operations and marketing support - Training and support should continue beyond initial sessions to make sure each franchisee is up-to-date with the latest best practices and ideas. While a franchisee may hire additional managers to help run his or her business, they still will lack resources to craft creative marketing campaigns. They look to the franchisor to provide these on a regular, timely basis. Provides support for training employees, including managers - As a new franchisee begins to build a team, he or she will need support from the franchisor to adequately onboard those people and get them up to speed quickly. Employees of the franchisee are where brand experiences are delivered (or not) so it’s critical they be trained well. Ongoing - One of the most important factors for franchisee training is that it remain ongoing. Information changes constantly and details are difficult to remember. Ongoing training helps franchisees stay current and revisit important concepts. If you’re a franchisee, what’s most important to you in a training program? If you represent a franchisor, how do you make sure you’re meeting franchisee training needs? Leave a comment below! photo credit: the other side

If you’re familiar with Atul Gawande’s New York Times bestselling book, The Checklist Manifesto, you know what a transformative role checklists can play in an organization, helping even the most skilled experts achieve optimum results and efficiency. Technically, checklists can be created and completed with paper and pencil. However, as we’ve illustrated in other posts, a paper system is inherently flawed. It’s cumbersome, prone to mistakes, and isn’t fit for digital recordkeeping or analysis. An interactive checklist, especially a mobile-optimized one, is much easier to embed right into the workday of the user. It can be accessed quickly, shrinks the margin for error and can be submitted and analyzed lightening-fast. Interactive Checklists: A Use Case We’ve been working with a client who came to us with a 500-point checklist. Yes, 500 items. Imagine having to complete that with paper and pen! Leadership recognized this checklist wasn’t fulfilling its potential and decided to make a change. They were on the right track by creating this checklist in the first place; it was just a matter of using modern technology to refine it to the point of becoming a very valuable tool. The checklist was converted to an interactive one that’s completely responsive, so it can be completed on any device. It’s quicker and easier to work through each section, and once the checklist is submitted, the information collected is immediately analyzed for managerial reports. It’s powerful stuff and is redefining the way this organization manages its multi-location business. I share this example to drive home the idea that interactive checklists are infinitely more powerful, more effective, and faster and easier to use than its paper-based ancestors. And there’s a lot you can do with them. Interactive checklists can help people remember steps. They can make sure a process is completed thoroughly. They can be a source of data for reports. They can collect feedback. They can provide information. They can provide support for situations encountered less frequently. Let’s dive into seven things you can do with an interactive checklist. Coaching: Learning to do something new takes time and practice, and a checklist can help you remember all the steps. Say you’ve brought on a new salesperson who is learning to use your CRM software and all that’s expected of him or her in using it. A handy checklist they can quickly pull up on their computer or phone will help remind them of everything they need to do in the CRM and how, so that no steps are missed. Not only is the company collecting the information it needs from the new rep, but the rep will feel as though he or she is acclimating to the new job quickly and avoid the frustrating hurdles of being the new person. Conduct Inspections: Inspections of a facility or piece of equipment ought to be thorough, especially when safety and regulatory mandates are a concern. Interactive checklists not only make sure an inspection is done thoroughly, but there is an immediate electronic record of each step being completed and marked as a pass/fail. In our client example above, they use these completed inspection checklists to identify trends and problem areas. Collect Feedback: An interactive checklist tool can also be a way to solicit feedback from a user base. A procedural checklist could include a question or two about how helpful the checklist is to the user. Gather Information: In the example above, completed inspection checklists are used to identify trends. Is a particular location repeatedly missing the mark in the same area? Looking for trends in inspection results helps management pinpoint problem areas for swift resolution. Emergency Response Protocol: Fortunately, emergencies don’t happen every day. But in the event something does happen, will your team feel confident in what steps to take? Checklists they can quickly access on any device will help them remain calm and instruct them how to handle the situation at hand, step-by-step. Quality Control/Process Improvement: Checklists not only make sure procedural tasks are completed—and completed properly—but allow for process refinement over time. Are any steps redundant? Should steps be completed in a different order to increase efficiency? Analytics and Reporting: Interactive checklists gather information that can be aggregated and turned into robust reports in near-real time. Data collected through paper checklists has to be manually entered into an analytics system before the information can really be of any use. Has your organization relied on checklists to accomplish any of the above, or perhaps something we haven’t mentioned? Comment below to share your experience. We’d love to hear about it.

For the second year in a row, Expand was included on the Weatherhead 100 Upstarts list! Each year, Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management recognizes entrepreneurship and business success in the Greater Cleveland area by compiling a list of the fastest-growing companies headquartered in the region. Last night, Eric and I attended the awards dinner to represent Expand and congratulate other winners. Companies are included based on sustained sales growth over a five year period. Many industries and cities within Northeast Ohio are represented, and it's exciting to see new brands join the ranks each year. It's a reflection of how strong the entrepreneurial spirit is here in Northeast Ohio.  Congratulations to all of the honorees.    

This article was first published at elearningindustry.com Many organisations are now transforming their learning and development programs to the eLearning domain. But choosing the right methods for their business based on their needs is still a challenge. Choosing the right eLearning programs depends upon many factors like proper need analysis, target audience analysis, task analysis,[...] The post Choosing The Right eLearning Methods: Factors And Elements appeared first on Amit K Soni | A Learning Professional.

This article was first published by me at elearningindustry.com Most Institutes and organizations are still using the board (white/black) techniques to teach their students/learners. Whiteboard animation is the concept of teaching the learners digitally while maintaining engagement. This mode can be altered with some interactivities and voice-overs. Whiteboard animations can play a huge role in[...] The post Using Whiteboard Animation For Training And eLearning appeared first on Amit K Soni | A Learning Professional.

This article was first published at http://elearningindustry.com. In today’s business scenarios, anyone may be able to create a simple online course; however, creating an effective eLearning course is a different thing altogether. eLearning is becoming a common area where employers can create their eLearning courses with ease; but using several media does not necessarily improve[...] The post How To Create An Effective eLearning Experience? appeared first on Amit K Soni | A Learning Professional.

Storyboards are very important elements of eLearning development; they direct learners towards achieving the performance objective, whereas also give a clear direction to the developer to create an effective eLearning experience. This article first published at elearningindustry.com. In this article I will focus on rapid storyboard development and share some tips on how to create eLearning storyboards[...] The post 3 Tips For Rapid Storyboard Development appeared first on Amit K Soni | A Learning Professional.

This article was first published at eLearningindustry.com In the present scenario, a wave of new eLearning tools has helped Learning and Development professionals avoid repetitive classroom training. Instead of standing in a conference room full of employees each quarter, trainers can now present the curriculum via online video presentations and interactive eLearning, and check for[...] The post Using eLearning As A Tool For Learning And Development Success appeared first on Amit K Soni | A Learning Professional.

Let us consider this scenario. Brian, a sales manager in an IT company, travels a lot as part of his job. He meets his customers very frequently to sell his company products. He often has to rush to meet the customers directly from the airport. During meetings, customers often ask him about the specific features of the products. Brian is stuck in such situations as he doesnot have every detail with him. What do you think willhelp Brian? If Brian has important and relevant information in easy-to-access devices like smartphones and iPads, he can answer customer queries without the need to refer to his laptop or back office personnel. Accessing a personal device such as a smartphone or a mobile device to learn or know more about information is termed as mobile learning. Let us see more about mobile learning. What is mobile learning? Is it taking courses or reading long presentations in a mobile phone?No, it is not. It is learning in the form of short and concise forms of informationusing personal devices.This could be applied to the business context if organizations have the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. We will look at BYOD a little later. Why will you go for mLearning? You can optfor mobile learning if: Your employees work remotely most of the time, for example sales executives You are clear that mLearning will add value toyour organisation and not just act as a replacement of the existing eLearning You can tackle the challenges of required responsiveness to the number of devices, platforms, and screen resolutions You want to enable your employees to access the tips and best practices anytime, anywhere and at their own pace Let us look at the concept of BYOD, which allows you to integrate mLearning in business trainings. What is BYOD? Unlike in a strict business environment where employees are not allowed to use personal devices, the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy allows employees to use personal devices such as mobile, tablets and laptops at work. As a result of this, many employees use one or the other devices at work. Keeping this change in mind, the companies have decided to use these devices for training purposes. Since these devices can be used for training solutions in business settings because of the BYOD policy, such learning is widely known as BYOD. Why BYOD? Save Money Organisationssave money by using the employees’ personal devices as the medium of training delivery. Organisationsdo not have to spend more to: Buy dedicated devices for the employees Buy the internet data plans for these devices Maintain and repair them More effective Most of the employees are reluctant to spare time for trainings from the tight schedule of their jobs. Even if they take the training, they do it for the sake of completing the mandatory trainings. They are more happy and enthusiastic to take up the training: At their own pace From anywhere in the world At their own way At any time of the year without a pre-booked timing, office device and place When they do this willingly and happily, the trainings become more effective. More comfortablefor employees   Employees use their personal devices day-in and day-out. Enabling employees to access the training from their own devices makes it more handy and comfortable for employees. They do not have to stick to the office-issued desktops or laptops at a specified time. How can you integrate mLearning in your training? Integrate as a performance support solution You can integrate mLearning as a performance support solution (just-in-time) where employees can access the right information at the right time. This will help them in performing better making their customers happy. Integrate to motivate the end-users You can integrate mLearning as a way to motivate the employees by creating an informal environment of learning, allowing them to learn outside offices and classes. When allowed to use their own devices, they feel comfortable to take up the learning anytime, anywhere and at their own pace and will. The post How to integrate mobile learning/BYOD to your training? appeared first on EI Design.

  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. How Gamification In eLearning Enhances Learning What is Gamification? According to Wikipedia, "Gamification techniques strive to leverage people’s natural desires for socializing, learning, mastery, competition, achievement, status, self-expression, altruism, or closure." Gamification is about more than just playing games (in fact, sometimes it does not involve playing games at all). It can be defined as the concept of applying game-design thinking to non-game applications. In the context of Gamification for serious learning, a game based concept is applied to content to meet the specific learning outcomes. Does Gamification in eLearning truly help learners learn? Several organizations do not consider Gamification in eLearning as a viable approach on account of higher cost, longer turn-around time to develop, and so on. Many shy away from using it in their formal eLearning programs, believing that while it is fun for the learners, it does not necessarily lead to a learning outcome. However, there are some interesting statistics that clearly establish it cannot be ignored: "By 21 years of age, many males will have spent over 10,000 hours immersed in online gaming."Source: McGonigal, Reality is Broken Gartner’s research estimated that more than 70% of Global 2000 companies would offer at least one gamified application by the end of 2014, although not all effectively. "By 2015, more than 50% of organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes."Source: Gartner, 2011 industry research How does Gamification enhance learning? Successful learning is a combination of three elements: 70% from real-life and on-the-job experiences, tasks, and problem solving 20% from feedback and from observing and working with peers and role models 10% from formal training Take a look at this diagram on the techniques used in learning design approaches and their relationship to retention of learning: As we note from this, gamification can provide an effective approach to enhancing learning. This is on account of these inherent features: It evokes friendly competition. It provides the learners with a sense of achievement. It provides an engaging learner experience leading to anticipated behavior change. It encourages learners to progress through the content, motivate action, and eventually influence behavior. 6 Benefits of Gamification in eLearning Better learning experience.  The learner can experience "fun" during the game and still learn if the level of engagement is high. A good gamification strategy with high levels of engagement will lead to an increase in recall and retention. Better learning environment. Gamification in eLearning provides an effective, informal learning environment, and helps learners practice real-life situations and challenges in a safe environment. This leads to a more engaged learning experience that facilitates better knowledge retention. Instant feedback. It provides instant feedback so that learners know what they know or what they should know. This too facilitates better learner engagement and thereby better recall and retention. Prompting behavioral change. Points, badges, and leaderboards would surely make training awesome. However, gamification is about a lot more than just those surface level benefits. Gamification can drive strong behavioral change especially when combined with the scientific principles of repeated retrieval and spaced repetition. Can be applied for most learning needs. Gamification can be used to fulfill most learning needs including induction and onboarding, product sales, customer support, soft skills, awareness creation, and compliance. Impact on bottom-line. On account of all these aspects that touch and impact learners (better learning experience, higher recall and retention, catalyzing behavioral change, and so on), it can create a significant performance gain for the organization. Success factors While Gamification in eLearning provides several benefits, as outlined here, much depends on the concept that is used to drive the learning. The mantra to succeed in using gamification in eLearning is to create a concept that: Captures (and retains) learners’ attention Challenges them Engages and entertains them, and Teaches them I hope this article has given you an insight on why you should evaluate Gamification for eLearning and how it will benefit both learners and your business. You could also look at my previous articles to learn how can you practically use Gamification for learning: Gamification In Learning Through An Avatar-based Serious Game Concept  Gamification Of Compliance Training Through A Serious Game Concept  Gamification In Learning: Featuring Gains Through A Serious Game Concept The post Top 6 Benefits Of Gamification In eLearning appeared first on EI Design.

    You have decided to outsource, secured the budgets, and are ready for the evaluation process. The next question would be where to start. India is a great option to start; however, it is a vast country and there are several cities that have eLearning companies. So, very soon, you will face the challenge of having far too many companies to evaluate, as you will not know where to start and how to ensure that you get the best option. In this article I will begin by summarizing why India is possibly the right destination for you, and then I will share some tips that will help you navigate through this maze. These pointers will make your evaluation process a tad easier in short-listing the best from all eLearning companies in India. How To Find The Best Out Of Many eLearning Companies In India India - the world’s preferred destination to outsource Several global surveys rate India consistently as the first option for software sourcing, and today this extends to eLearning outsourcing as well. You get to work with a young and dynamic workforce; most of them keenly pursue additional training or certification programs to enhance their skills. Also, there is no language barrier, as most people speak English. Finally, a very significant aspect is the flexibility that you will have in order to manage different time zones: Most Indians will work extra hours to help you handle these time zone challenges. Key advantages of choosing outsourcing to eLearning companies in India To start with, there is a wide range of eLearning companies in India that can provide the entire spectrum of services that you seek. The eLearning industry in India is in a mature phase, which enables you to access high skill levels across Project Management, Visual Design, Instructional Design, QA, and Technology. In addition, outsourcing to India helps you reap benefits in terms of: Competitive pricing High quality and quick turn-around time Access to the largest pool of technology and multimedia professionals in the world Seasoned Project Management professionals A mature eLearning development process (optimized for globally distributed development) How can you go through the maze and select the right eLearning companies in India to partner with? Here are the 3 key eLearning hubs where you can start: North: Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) West: Mumbai and Pune South: Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad After your evaluation, you can use these parameters to short-list 2 or 3 potential partners: Been in existence for over 10 years Focus on tools and technology/learning experience and learner-centricity Focus on eLearning (check if at least 50% or more of their business is coming from eLearning) and future plans (ask for their short-term view over the next 2-3 years) Quality of demos and samples Reference checks Project Management expertise Team (particularly check for attrition rates and their talent retention initiatives) Processes (particularly check for conformance to processes - a quality certification is a great indicator) Quality Management System Cost How to zero in on the best? After you have completed the short-listing, it is a good idea to revisit the start-point as to why you had planned outsourcing. This aspect will have a bearing on the final selection. Your decision could have been driven by: Scaling (to handle higher volumes) Reducing the time to market Cost reduction Access to talent that you do not have Addition of more innovative solutions to your portfolio Here are my inputs on how to choose the best company for you (based on my assessment of what the location offers): If you are looking at cheaper options, look at Delhi (particularly NCR) and Pune. (Although I believe that there is a tradeoff: lack of innovative solutions and capability to look into the future, not necessarily the best talent in technology that can provide you the edge, and so on. These issues may be addressed more effectively in other locations). If scaling is your primary reason, pretty much all cities will meet your mandate. If innovative solutions are your primary concern, look at Bangalore. Note: If outsourcing is strategic, you need to work with the same team over the long term. The attrition rates in mid-sized companies are lower, and therefore you get to continue to interact with the same team for a longer period of time. Some additional inputs Delhi and Mumbai have some of the biggest companies that can address the high volume needs. Bangalore and Hyderabad offer more quality-oriented and process-oriented mid-sized companies than other cities. Bangalore, also known as the "Knowledge capital" of India, offers a better talent in technology on account of access to stellar technical colleges and universities. You will also find more innovative approaches in these organizations. Pune offers great Visual Design talent. On account of all these factors (access to specialized talent pool and a mature eLearning industry), India is certainly the right destination to outsource eLearning. I hope I have been able to provide some meaningful pointers that would help you in selecting the best partner for you.The post Too Many eLearning Companies In India - How To Find The Best? appeared first on EI Design.