It’s a fact of life that we humans get used to things quite quickly. We drive to work on autopilot, not remembering how we got from A to B. We zone out while listening to the news. We struggle to concentrate when revising. Why is this? Well, research suggests that it’s because we are more likely to remember things that are novel, i.e. unexpected, surprising, new or unusual. We’d remember our drive to work if something new or exciting happened - like if the daffodils had suddenly sprouted, or there was a road closure, or we had a near miss. Novelty The hippocampus is one of the most important brain regions when it comes to discovering, processing and storing new sensory information. New or exciting stimuli activate the hippocampus more than familiar stimuli, which is why we remember novel experiences more easily than everyday occurrences. Here’s how it works (be sure to head to Scientific American for the whole story in more detail): The hippocampus compares incoming information with stored knowledge. If there is a disparity, the hippocampus sends a pulse of dopamine to the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area. These, in turn, send dopamine back to the hippocampus. You can probably guess what happens next: the excess dopamine creates stronger connections, leading to long-term memory of the event which triggered the reaction. Novelty in Learning When it comes to learning, we want to be sure that learners remember what they’re being taught. Otherwise, what’s the point, right? If learners don’t recall information then the whole training programme was a waste of time and money. Therefore in order to achieve a greater understanding via improved recall, it’s important to sprinkle surprises - or novel experiences - into eLearning modules and online learning platforms. Gamification in Learning Gamification is one way to do this. ‘Surprising’ learners with badges, points and achievements will trigger this dopamine reaction, creating links in the brain which will help us remember information. But that’s not the only effect of dopamine - it’s also the neurotransmitter which gives us a buzz and lets us enjoy certain activities. More about that in a future blog post. eLearning Surprises In addition to gamification, learners can be surprised in other ways, too. Take, for instance, the use of humour or inventive storytelling in eLearning modules. Rather than being faced with a boring, standard scenario, an interesting or ‘novel’ scenario will capture learners’ attention and get them to remember what they learnt. Let’s see how this might work: Boring scenario: Mr Salesman knows that needs to sell his product at £340 to meet the profit margins. He’s struggling to get the customer to agree to anything higher than £310. What tactics should he use to make the sale? Superduperfun scenario: In order to keep saving the day, Superman needs a new superhero suit. His is pretty tattered and torn from all his exertions. He needs £340 for his new suit but the Mayor is only willing to offer him £310. What tactics should he use to persuade the Mayor to give him more? Can you see the difference? Thinking in terms of an unknown, faceless salesman might be more relevant to the job role, but learning about sales practices by putting yourself in Superman’s shoes is much more enjoyable and interesting! Want to find out more about how to get learners truly invested and engaged in their training? Download our free research paper by filling out the form below!  

This Halloween, things for Rodger, a Learning and Development Manager, will never be the same again… His intentions were good. Great, even. All he wanted to do was provide his learners with a Learning Management System that would do its job, teach his employees new skills and secure a good return on investment. But something went tragically wrong. The legacy LMS Rodger chose caused a Zombie Learner outbreak and now the office is overrun with drooling, brain-dead ghouls, hungry for human flesh and hating their LMS. They’re bored, demotivated, disengaged and have the taste for blood… What will Rodger do? Is it too late to save his learners? Watch the video below to find out… Want to find out more about how to cure the zombie learner virus? Click the button below to download our free white paper all about how get learners engaged and motivated!  

This week’s Learning Hero is Jane Hart! As a writer, speaker and advisor, Jane has been helping businesses and Learning and Development managers bring their systems and processes up to date for over 30 years. Her mission is to help organisations to move beyond eLearning and effectively embrace the possibilities of social and collaborative learning. When it comes to social learning, Jane Hart knows what she’s talking about. A lot of L&D managers aren’t so insightful and they make the mistake of haphazardly integrating social networks with their training, or trying to create a discussion area on their LMS. In these cases, learners are often forced to use social media in their training and the success of the initiative is measured by the level of engagement. Firstly, this doesn’t offer much of an incentive for learners and secondly, enforced engagement is hardly going to provide accurate data. Jane rightly points out that social learning isn’t new - humans have learned socially since the beginning of civilisation. The challenge for L&D managers is to use the new technology offered by social networks to encourage collaborative learning and bring out the learners’ natural urge to share their knowledge. This is something that already happens in every workplace in the world (except perhaps the secret services) - ‘Social Learning’, as it’s understood in the online learning world, is the task of replicating that on a Learning Management System, thus using it to its full potential. As the founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (C4LPT), Jane has her finger firmly on the pulse of new developments in learning technology. C4LPT is one of the world’s most visited learning sites on the Web and it is full of great resources for learning professionals everywhere. Every year, Jane compiles a list of the Top 100 Tools for Learning as voted for by the L&D professionals who use them the most. Aside from hosting a virtual L&D toolkit, C4LPT also features Learning in the Modern Workplace, Jane’s blog and the number one most socially shared Learning and Development blog according to the CMOE (Center for Management & Organization Effectiveness). The blog is regularly updated, so you will never be short of some fresh insights! When Jane isn’t writing or advising, she gives talks at conferences, all over the world, as well as running online workshops. You can keep updated with the latest news by following Jane on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+. As Jane has pointed out, it’s difficult to implement an effective collaborative learning environment on a Learning Management System - particularly on one that hasn’t been designed for that purpose. Our Academy LMS has been built from the ground up to boost engagement and enable social learning with features that make it feel like a perfect marriage between a social network and an online learning platform. To find out how we do it, download our white paper below.  

We were overjoyed in September when was announced that Growth Engineering were shortlisted for FIVE prestigious E-Learning Awards. It came hot on the heels of gaining three Brandon Hall Excellence Awards (read more about that here), so you can say that September was a great month for us! The E-Learning Awards is put on by e.learning age, the company behind the excellent e.learning age magazine, which we’ve featured in a fair few times. The E-Learning Awards ceremony is always a great event, but this year may surpass the others as the Awards will be celebrating its tenth anniversary. Let’s take a look at the five E-Learning Awards we have been shortlisted for: Best e-learning project: UK private sector (in association with Bensons for Beds) We created Bensons Academy with Bensons for Beds, Britain’s largest bed retailer with over 270 stores and 1,800 employees. The Academy boosted employee engagement, reduced attrition rates from 50% to 23% - saving the company £1,350,000 a year - and reduced training costs by £500,000. Best online distance learning program (in association with Azlan Tech Data) Growth Engineering and Azlan (the Enterprise Specialist Distribution division of Tech Data, wholesale distributor of technology products) came together to create Tech Data Academy, which was an incredible success. The results speak for themselves: one individual who received sales training delivered an increase of 678% in sales across six different customer accounts - a truly remarkable feat - and proactive users on the Academy outperformed inactive users by 75% in terms of sales growth. Best Learning Management System implementation (in association with Brakes) The Brakes Change Academy was created to smooth the process of a company-wide systems change within the organisation. Following the training, employee knowledge of systems change increased by a whopping 90%. E-Learning development company of the year E-Learning Age outstanding learning organisation award As you can see, there’s a lot to be proud of! Juliette Denny, Managing Director of Growth Engineering, said: "It’s fantastic that our clients are being recognised in this way - we may lay the foundations by providing the technology, but it is our customers that truly push their Academies forwards and secure success. We’re delighted to be recognised alongside them, and as for our individual award shortlistings… Well, we won Silver in E-Learning Development Company of the Year last year, so it’s spectacular to be shortlisted again!" The results will be announced at an exclusive gala awards evening on Thursday 6th November, so keep your eyes peeled for updates! We’ll be Tweeting during the event using #elawards, so don’t forget to follow us: @growthengineer Want to find out more about what we can do for your organisation? Download our white paper by clicking the button below!  

What do you do when learners don’t seem to want to learn online? You may have all the ingredients for a successful training roll out - from internal marketing and senior management buy-in to a great Learning Management System - but what options do you have when employees are pushing back? For employees that have worked a certain way for years, asking them to change their behaviours is a big deal. If they don’t believe in the new way of doing things - whether it’s a new style of learning, changes to structure or systems - they won’t be enthusiastic about it. In fact, they’ll likely be disengaged, demotivated and disinterested. And you can’t expect to get a good return on investment if this is how your employees are thinking, can you? Yet engagement is incredibly important when it comes to a change programme - you can’t afford to have employees falling behind or not picking up on the changes required. From Novice to Master One way to deal with employees who aren’t engaged with their new online training is to encourage them to ‘master’ their Learning Management System. If you want to engage your learners, the Mastery Mountain is a great framework for thinking about how likely you are to secure engagement. If your LMS is designed with a learning journey in mind - taking learners from being ‘Novices’ to ‘Visionaries’ - then chances are your learners will be engaged. On the other hand, if your system simply offers eLearning modules and then tests how much they learnt without a framework for progress, you’ll find your learners will be demotivated and disengaged. How it Works All learners - whether they are tech-savvy Generation Y-ers or Baby Boomers who have been working at the same organisation for 30 years - begin their learning journeys at the same point. They’re all novices when it comes to online learning and their LMS. They don’t really know what it’s all about; part of the excitement of online learning comes from exploring this new terrain and familiarising ourselves with technology that has opened up new possibilities. In order for the Learning Management System to engage, you need a clear and well defined process for mastery. Each step needs to be clearly and thoughtfully mapped out to ensure your employee has an obvious, sign-posted progression journey, gently guiding them up the mountain. If this is mapped out and carefully considered it is then possible to be clear and measure the level of engagement on your LMS and, most importantly, make changes to ensure it is continually improving. The more detailed the roadmap is, with key achievements along the way, the better and more attractive the LMS will be to learners and the more likely it is that employees will be engaged with their training programmes. The basis of engagement is that if you give someone a sense of mastery over the system, they tend to become loyal users. It’s clear that climbing the Mastery Mountain will get learners engaged with their online learning journey. But it might not be as clear how to get the ball rolling… Recognition and Rewards The learning journey you map out for your learners needs to clearly signposted - and these signposts can come in all sorts of forms. From the get-go, the learner needs to discover what’s in it for them - what will they get out of learning these things? Of course, they also need to understand how to use their LMS, so a guided tour and a set of tasks they need to complete is a great way to do this. Aligning points and badges to these tasks (‘gamification’) shows them that when perform certain actions, they get rewarded - which encourages them to do more! Let’s not forget the importance of recognition of learners’ achievements. Taking a look at the Badge Cabinet and checking out all the badges and achievements available to them will show the learner what actions they need to take to progress up the Leaderboard, which itself highlights how a learner is doing in comparison to their peers. The rewards that learners gain for doing certain things - from opening up an eLearning module to sharing a badge on Twitter - will motivate them to continue. With a gamified LMS, no great achievement goes unnoticed, yet the learner doesn’t have to toot their own horn. Mastering their LMS and receiving recognition and rewards will encourage learners to get on board with their learning journey and embrace their new online system. Pretty soon they’ll realise that online learning isn’t scary! There’s no need to push back against their new L&D programme - pretty soon employees will realise that there’s a lot to be gained by logging on and learning. Want to find out more about securing engagement in learning? Fill out the form below!  

We’re really proud to announce that Growth Engineering and Unicorn Training, in association with e.learning age, are holding an exciting two-day seminar on the future of learning! Taking place on Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th November 2014 at the Kia Oval in London, the E-Learning 20-20: Stay ahead of the game! seminar offers a unique chance for the eLearning community to come together to network, share knowledge and explore future trends in the industry. The landscape of eLearning is fast changing, so it’s vital to stay ahead of the curve. We’re delighted to say we’ll be joined by three industry big-hitters: Craig Weiss will be flying in from LA to provide his unique insights on what’s next for the industry. Founder and CEO of E-Learning 24/7, Craig was named the second most influential person in the world for eLearning in 2014. Craig will be with us throughout both days including a closing review and was named the second most influential person in the world for eLearning Q & A session. An Coppens is the Chief Game Changer at Gamification Nation Ltd, where the vision is to make business and learning more fun and engaging. She is an award-winning business coach, learning & development professional, author and speaker. She was ranked in the top 100 Innovation and gamification experts in 2012 and in 2014 entered the top 25 of gamification gurus worldwide. Mike Hawkyard is an expert on casual games design, self-publishing and digital marketing. His work has won many awards and helped generate over 253,000,000 play sessions in 2013 alone. As a Board member of TIGA, a UK trade association for computer game companies, he helps British studios stay competitive in a global market place. This led to him representing the UK games trade mission to South Korea in 2013. Buy your ticket now Places are strictly limited, please head to the e.learning age website to book your place! Prices are £195+VAT for a single day or £325+VAT for both days. Day one: Next Gen Learning Management Systems and Gamification As technologies continue to emerge and advance, the world of online learning is going through a period of rapid and unprecedented change. New technologies open up new possibilities for learning and development, but they also bring new challenges for L&D professionals. How do we make the right choices to meet the expectations of our learners and to drive business performance? To keep up, you need to understand what’s possible today, as well as what’s coming next. Which trends really matter and which are just today’s latest fad? 10.30am - 11.30am: Craig Weiss What is a Next Gen Learning Management System? The problem of engagement and getting learners invested in their learning. What’s the future for Learning Management Systems? +Q&A 11.30am - 1pm: Breakout groups Attendees can choose from: Rolling out an LMS, key challenges of LMS engagement, mobile learning, social learning (with GAME Retail) The future of Learning Management Systems with Craig Weiss  How to link gamification with real-life rewards and remuneration (with Noel Jolly of Steinhoff) 2pm - 2.30pm: An Coppens How to use gamification on Learning Management Systems and the challenges faced by organisations. What demographics affect gamification uptake and how can these problems be mitigated? How important is it to make gamification strategic and linked to learning? +Q&A 2.30pm - 4pm: Breakout groups Attendees can choose from: Rolling out an LMS, key challenges of LMS engagement, mobile learning, social learning (with GAME Retail) The future of Learning Management Systems with Craig Weiss  How to link gamification with real-life rewards and remuneration, effective use of gamification within an LMS (badges, leaderboards, levels) (with Noel Jolly of Steinhoff) Challenges of gamification & solutions (with An Coppens) Day Two: The future of learning content - You cannot be Serious! The exponential growth in the use of smart phones and tablet devices has in a period of less than five years transformed the way we as individuals find information, learn and share. Yet much of corporate eLearning remains deskbound, behind the firewall, and often is perceived as a necessary chore by reluctant learners. This seminar will explore the question of how we bridge that gap. What new tools are available, and where should we be looking for inspiration in our learning design? What are serious games and can they make a real difference to learning effectiveness? How do we transform eLearning into just-in-time Performance Support? 10.30am - 11.30am: Mike Hawkyard How is the mobile revolution changing the way we consume learning and what are the implications for learning content design and publishing? Mike is the managing director of Amuzo games, one of the UK’s most successful games development companies best known for their Lego games on the iPad and Android. Amuzo‘s award winning titles have been #1 on iOS in 130 countries and were played over 250,000,000 times last year alone. +Q&A 11.30am - 1pm: Breakout groups Choose from: Building game principles into your eLearning on a budget Migrating to mobile - upgrading your legacy content Performance support - chunking and JIT delivery 2pm - 4pm: Let’s play A unique opportunity to get creative with a practical, hands-on breakout session. Working in small groups, you’ll design and map out a game. (With Craig Weiss and Mike Hawkyard). To whet your appetite, why not download a research paper on gamification? Just click the button below!  

This Week’s Learning Hero is Erika Andersen! Erika is an author, consultant and coaching expert and a founding partner of Proteus; a training and consulting company that aims to create better organisations by growing better leaders. When it comes to Learning and Development, a lot of the focus tends to be on a top-down model, with managers delivering and coordinating training for their employees. But who is training the managers? It’s often been said that you can’t teach management skills - great leaders are born, not made. Maybe there’s an aspect of arrogance in that assumption, or perhaps it’s just the habit of ages. Whatever the case, Erika doesn’t sit around debating its source - she seeks to fix the problem by telling the managers and leaders of the world what they need to hear - leadership skills can be taught and they can be learned. She focuses on equipping managers for the leadership challenges they meet every day, as well as preparing them for anything that might come up in the future. By helping these individuals to become the best leaders they can be, Erika is also helping whole companies to succeed as these leadership lessons are turned into tangible results. Besides her consulting work, Erika is also a popular author on the subject of leadership and management. When she first got into the field, she looked around for a good book that just told her how to be a good manager. All she could find were small books with vague tips and tricks, and at the other end of the scale, she found dense scholarly tomes that went into exhaustive and specific detail. There was nothing in between the two extremes, so Erika decided to fill a gap in the market. Her latest book, Leading So People Will Follow, describes how leaders can truly succeed by employing six key attributes: far-sightedness, passion, courage, wisdom, generosity, and trustworthiness. In keeping with her conviction, she shows how it is indeed possible to turn people into better leaders. It’s only in this way that they can set the example necessary to lead better teams and thus form stronger companies. If you want to find out more, you can check out Erika’s website which is regularly updated with insightful articles. You can also keep updated with the latest from Erika by following her on Twitter. Erika Andersen demonstrates on a daily basis how behavioural change can completely transform companies. The key to getting the most out of your people is engagement. If you can deliver training that keeps them interested, excited and engaged, then the rest is easy! At Growth Engineering, we help businesses realise their full potential with the help of our Gamified Social Learning Management System. To find out how the Academy LMS can help you unlock the secrets of engagement, fill in the form below to download our white paper.  

Stop what you’re doing and listen up: Growth Engineering won THREE coveted awards at the 2014 E-Learning Awards gala evening on 6th November! We were shortlisted for five awards (find out more here) so it was absolutely fantastic to scoop three of them! Here’s what we came away with: Bronze for Best E-Learning Project - Private Sector in conjunction with the incredible Bensons for Beds (read the case study!). Noel Jolly, Head of HR for Steinhoff Retail (which Bensons is part of), was among five of our wonderful clients who joined us for the exciting awards ceremony at the London Marriott Hotel, and it was a delight to share the stage with him to celebrate Bensons and Growth Engineering’s combined success. The second award was another Bronze, this time in the Best Learning Management System Implementation, which we won with Brakes for the impressive Brakes Academy (read the case study here!). The awesome Ian Moreton-Thickett joined us on stage to pick up the award - and share a celebratory glass of wine (or three)! Finally, we were blown away to receive GOLD in the special e.learning age Outstanding Learning Organisation Award category - a huge honour that we are delighted to have won! As we often say, Growth Engineering isn’t just a Learning Technologies company. We’re an organisation that’s on a mission to shake up the online learning landscape, force a revolution and transform learning from something dull and boring into an experience that excites, delights and engages learners. To be recognised as shaking some life into online learning is fantastic, and something we’re incredibly proud of. Juliette Denny, Managing Director of Growth Engineering, said: "What an honour! We won a Silver award last year and thought we couldn’t feel any better than we did then, but this is even more incredible! Thank you, e.learning age, for putting on yet another incredible evening. The E-Learning Awards have seen ten years of excellence - let’s raise a glass to another ten!" We may not have come away with all 5 of the awards we were shortlisted for, but for us - and our lovely clients - we feel like we’ve achieved something spectacular, particularly when we consider all the other accolades we’ve received this year: three Brandon Hall Excellence Awards (including an award with Azlan Tech Data) and very impressive rankings from eLearning expert Craig Weiss of #1 NextGen LMS, #1 Gamified LMS and #1 LMS in Europe. So please join us in toasting the success of our clients, who work so tirelessly to implement our learning solutions into their organisations, and to all the Growth Engineering team for their dedication to striving for greatness. See you all next year for more of the same! Want to find out more about our multi-award winning Gamified Social Academy LMS and what it can do for your organisation? Click the button below and fill out the form!      

We’re really excited to invite you to attend the E-Learning 20-20 Stay ahead of the game! seminar at the Kia Oval on 26-27 November. This seminar will offer unique insights from online learning thought leaders, gamification gurus and the organisations that utilise award-winning learning technology. You’ll find out more about: Future trends in eLearning What the best ‘NextGen’ Learning Management Systems have over legacy LMSs How to secure learner engagement How to roll out a training plan utilising ‘Gamification’ How to link gamification to real-life rewards By the end of the seminar, you will: Have a plan for implementing gamification and games into your learning and development programmes Be able to make plans to keep ahead of the changes within the industry Understand how to migrate to mobile learning Be able to create games for learning Hosted by eLearning expert Craig Weiss, gamification guru An Coppens and game design expert Mike Hawkyard. Are you ready to get ahead of the game, or are you willing to fall behind? Book now to avoid disappointment: E-Learning 20-20 Stay ahead of the game! seminar. We hope to see you there! Want to find out more about what we do and what gets us motivated? Click the button below!  

We’re really excited to share with you all the awesome news that Juliette Denny, Founder and Managing Director of Growth Engineering, has reached the final of the prestigious NatWest everywoman Awards for her contribution to technology! Juliette is one of three finalists for the NatWest everywoman ‘Iris’ award, which is sponsored by IBM. It’s given ‘to the most inspirational and successful female entrepreneur who runs a business that uses technology in an innovative and disruptive way’ - and as we wage war on dull online learning, we think it’s a fitting selection! The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on December 3rd at the Dorchester in London. But until then, here’s a bit more about Juliette, us, and of course everywoman. In 2004, while working in the US, Juliette identified a need in the market for a Learning Management platform and eLearning content that engaged and delighted learners. Her vision was to create online learning so compelling that organisations could deliver training and development programmes that their staff enjoyed and really wanted to be engaged with. Fed up of the boring online learning that was suffocating L&D, Juliette launched Growth Engineering - with the support of her family - upon her return to the UK. Juliette’s goal is for Growth Engineering to provide exceptional online learning through our ISMM and ILM eLearning Libraries and our Gamified Academy Learning Management System to 10% of the world’s population within 10 years. It’s a ballsy goal, but having recently opened offices in India, the Philippines and the US, and with clients as far reaching as Australia, Canada and Peru, it’s a goal that looks set to become a reality. Speaking about being selected as a finalist, Juliette said: "I can hardly believe it! I was excited to have been selected for the shortlist, but to reach the final is simply incredible. We work hard at Growth Engineering to shake up the learning landscape by delivering beautiful, engaging learning technologies, so it’s great to be acknowledged for this." If you’d like to find out more about what we do, get in touch with us by clicking the button below and filling out the form. We can’t wait to hear from you! About the Awards The NatWest everywoman awards were launched 12 years ago to celebrate British entrepreneurship and creating female role models to highlight the benefits and rewards of business ownership. Find out more here: NatWest everywoman Awards.  

Do you remember, as a child, when the teacher would wheel a TV into your classroom during lessons? It was a joyous occasion, for it marked the start of something very special. Something engaging, interesting, and captivating. When your teacher pressed ‘Play’, learning no longer felt like learning. You didn’t have to try not to fall asleep or wish away the hour. You were free to sit back, watch, consume and learn. You probably don’t remember many of the textbooks you read in school when you were young - but the likelihood is you do remember at least one educational video you were shown during class. That’s because watching a video is more engaging than reading or copying off a blackboard. Here’s why videos rock: Why Videos are Vital in eLearning 1. Videos add an extra dimension to eLearning. They add interactivity, boost interest and engagement, and are great for presenting information in a role-play style scenario. Reading can get tiring after a while, so replacing text-heavy screens with a ‘talking head’ can ease the process and make it easier for learners to take in the information. 2. Real-life, face-to-face training in classrooms and workshops is expensive. Think about it: booking the venue, paying the tutor, getting employees there, paying expenses, a lost day’s work… The costs soon add up and it quickly becomes a very expensive venture. On the other hand, using videos in eLearning is much less expensive, while still being a personal way of getting your message out there to your learners - which they’ll appreciate! 3. It’s easy to record videos. Sure, you can head to a local recording studio, stand in front of a green screen and have the video digitally altered afterwards. But you don’t have to! You could choose to record yourself on your computer or mobile phone and upload it straight away to your online learning portal. Much simpler, quicker and cheaper! 4. According to research, 65% of us are visual learners, so videos really appeal to the way in which we like to learn. Some of us find reading difficult and tiresome, yet come alive with interest and enthusiasm when presented with a video from which to learn. The most important thing is having the option: ok, not everyone will like videos, so be sure to include a transcript too - that’ll get everyone on the same page and improving their knowledge. 5. Videos are very quick to make. We said before how simple it is to create and upload a video - therefore, that makes it quick, too. Picture this: the industry your organisation is in has passed new legislation and you need to update your employees as soon as possible to avoid repercussions. You could write it all down in a slideshow presentation (boo! Boring!), create an eLearning module on it (yay, but time consuming) or grab your CEO, sit him in a chair and record him on your mobile explaining the new legislation. You can have the video up on the Learning Management System and being watched by hundreds of employees in minutes! 6. You can track videos to make sure everyone has seen it. Your Learning Management System will be able to monitor and report on who watched it, who has yet to watch it and who started but then stopped. You can then send reminders to those employees to make sure they log on and get themselves up to speed. In fact, you can even set these reminders to go out automatically after a certain date. Easy and effective! To find out more about how to create awesome eLearning, check out our white paper:  

This week, we’re going to jump away from the world of learning and development to bring you something a little different. Learning can be found in all kinds of places and this week, we’ve found more enlightenment than we thought possible in the whimsical world of webcomics. Randall Munroe has an impressive, if diverse resume, including topics as wide-ranging as robotics and comic strips. His website, xkcd, is a haven of geeky comedy featuring minimalist stick figures dealing with themes like computer science, philosophy, social awkwardness and irony. But it isn’t his comic that’s caught our eye this week (brilliant though it is). Randall has recently published What if?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, a book based on the section of the same name on xkcd. Here, fans submit their own hypothetical questions, many of which are utterly ridiculous, and Randall endeavours to find the best, most accurate scientific answer he can. Need a couple of examples? "My 12-year-old daughter is proposing an interesting project. She is planning to attach a number of helium balloons to a chair, which in turn would be tethered by means of a rope to a Ferrari. Her 13-year-old friend would then drive the Ferrari around, while she sits in the chair enjoying uninterrupted views of the countryside. Leaving aside the legal and insurance difficulties, my daughter is keen to know the maximum speed that she could expect to attain, and how many helium balloons would be required." Phil Rodgers, Cambridge, UK Find the answer here. "As plastic is made from oil and oil is made from dead dinosaurs, how much actual real dinosaur is there in a plastic dinosaur?" Steve Lydford Find the answer here. In most cases, the answer has no practical value but sometimes, it’s the process used to arrive at the answer that’s truly ingenious. He regularly employs complex mathematics and applies it to figures gleaned from a number of scientific studies to arrive at something resembling a satisfactory explanation. In What if?, we see the value of curiosity. In the world of learning and development, it’s easy to forget that not all learning needs to have an objective that can be mapped to a business goal. It’s important to think outside of the box sometimes - after all, it’s only through thinking creatively that we can arrive at creative solutions. One way to tap into the wellspring of creativity in your company is to encourage social learning. Collaborative knowledge sharing is a way to take advantage the collective genius of your employees and realise the true potential of your business. Our Academy LMS is built not only to deliver training to your learners, but to encourage real organisational change. To find out how this can help you, download our white paper by clicking the button below.  

If you’re a salesperson or you’re a Learning and Development professional looking to upskill your salesforce, you’ve probably encountered a lot of boring online sales training. You know the kind we mean. It has great intentions, but the click-through slideshows are dull, the videos bland and monotonous, and the recall questions at the end could send a hyperactive toddler straight into the land of nod. You’re probably doubting the efficacy of online sales training altogether and considering going back to classroom or workshop training. But don’t forget the reason you wanted to steer clear of this in the first place: real-life, face-to-face sales training is expensive, time consuming and difficult to roll out to an entire workforce. Online learning, on the other hand, is quicker, easier and more cost effective, and it’s a piece of cake to roll out the same sales qualifications to an entire workforce in one fell swoop, whether employees are in a nearby office or on another continent. Our Sales Academies are one way of doing this. Sales Academies are online learning portals that host, deliver, monitor and report on sales training programmes. Salespeople simply log on, open up eLearning modules, go through them and submit assessments and assignments to check their knowledge. It sounds similar to other online sales training, but there are a few big differences: Our Sales Academy is social. Learners are encouraged to share their knowledge with other salespeople who are going through the same training, which helps everyone to get to grips with concepts better and reach a greater depth of understanding. Standard online sales training is lonely - learners go through eLearning modules (usually slideshows only!) all on their own and aren’t able to bounce ideas off one another. Sales Academies are social, collaborative learning spaces that encourage interactions - creating a culture of knowledge sharing which boosts intellectual capital. Our Sales Academy is gamified. Gamification is the application of gaming mechanics and metaphors to non-gaming scenarios, like sales training. It makes the whole learning process much more fun and enjoyable by rewarding learners for desired behaviours, thus reinforcing them and leading to a more successful training roll-out. Our Sales Academies offer accredited sales training. We’ve partnered up with the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management (ISMM) to offer Ofqual-accredited qualifications which confer real advantages when it comes to getting a new job or working your way up the career ladder. ISMM qualifications are respected all over the world - in fact, one of our Australian clients is putting their employees through ISMM training. Our sales training comes preloaded onto an Academy or as a separate entity. By this, we mean that you can license the library of ISMM content to your Learning Management System, create a specialised *Your Company Name* Sales Academy on which to offer the training, or sign individual employees up to our Academy, the Sales Superstars Academy. Whatever method you choose, you’ll know that you’re treating your employees to impressive sales training that will boost their skills, engage them in their learning and let them gain a recognised qualification. Want to find out more? Download the Sales Academy white paper by clicking the button below, or head on over to our Sales Superstars sister site!  

Experience real gamification at the E-Learning 20-20: Stay ahead of the game! seminar at the Kia Oval on Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 November. It’s not long until the exciting event - put on by e.learning age in association with Growth Engineering and Unicorn Training - which will provide a unique opportunity for the eLearning community to come together to network, share knowledge and explore future trends in the industry. Let’s take a closer look at what Day 1 holds and how the entire two-day seminar will be ‘gamified’: Day One: Next Gen LMS & Gamification        As technologies continue to emerge and advance, the world of online learning is going through a period of rapid and unprecedented change. New technologies open up new possibilities for learning and development, but they also bring new challenges for L&D professionals. How do we make the right choices to meet the expectations of our learners and to drive business performance? To keep up, you need to understand what’s possible today, as well as what’s coming next. Which trends really matter and which are just today’s latest fad? The day kicks off with eLearning expert Craig Weiss (of elearninfo247 fame) explaining how the ‘next generation’ of Learning Management Systems is revolutionising the L&D landscape, and what the future might hold for learning technologies. At 11.30, Craig is joined by GAME Retail and Noel Jolly of Bensons for Beds (part of the Steinhoff Group) for breakout sessions, including: Rolling out an LMS, the key challenges of LMS engagement, mobile learning and social learning The future of Learning Management Systems How to link gamification with real-life rewards and remuneration After lunch, gamification expert An Coppens, of Gamification Nation, will be speaking on how to use gamification on Learning Management Systems and overcome challenges, in what situations gamification works best and the importance of making gamification strategic and linked in business goals. Finally, Day One will end with another breakout group session, focusing on the three issues from earlier as well as: Challenges of gamification and how to overcome them. As for gamifying the event…   Attendees will be split up into four groups at the start of the day. Every time they interact with the speakers, ask or answer questions and take an active role in the day, they’ll receive a badge and a point will be added to their team’s running total. The team with the most points at the end of the day will be crowed champions! Time is running out to get your ticket - head to the e.learning age website to buy your ticket now! Find out more about gamification and what we do by clicking the button below:  

As a Learning Technologies company that is at the forefront of innovation and development - our Academy Learning Management System was ranked the #1 NextGen LMS by eLearning expert Craig Weiss! - we’re really interested in technology. That’s why we decided to put together our favourite five TED Talks all about technology - the best developments of the past century and what’s on the horizon. Check ‘em out! 1. Margaret Gould Stewart: How giant websites design for you (and a billion others, too) How do Facebook, Google and all those other big websites design for the hundreds of thousands of millions and billions of people that use them? As it turns out, small things really matter! Take the Facebook Like button, for example. Margaret says it took the designer 280 hours over the course of several months to update the design. Why bother? Because when you’re designing at scale there is no such thing as a small detail - not when the Like button is seen on average 22 billion times a day and on over 7.5 million websites! Watch below: 2. Jason Pontin: Can technology solve our big problems? Why go to the moon? Why fly the Atlantic? We choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Jason explains the technological innovations that went into the Apollo space programme - how technology solved one huge problem of how to get to the moon. But, he says, what has technology done for us lately? We’ve got trivial toys, apps, algorithms that speed up automated trading. Great - but they aren’t solving our ‘big problems’! 3. Ron McCallum: How technology allowed me to read Months after he was born, Ron McCallum became blind. In this TED Talk, Ron explains how he was part of a technological revolution that would make his dream of reading come true. 4. David Pogue: 10 top time-saving tech tips Think you know all the shortcuts on your computer or mobile phone? Think again! Watch the video to find out how to: scroll up and down your browser without touching the mouse or arrow keys; redial the last number you called with one touch; quickly replace an incorrect word; and turn a $50 camera into a $1,000 camera! 5. Mitch Resnick: Let’s teach kids to code Coding and development is very close to our heart - we are a technology company, after all! Here, Mitch explains how he created Scratch, a website to help kids create projects, and highlights the importance of encouraging kids to code:   We hope you enjoyed these top 5 TED Talks on technology! You can find out more about the kinds of technology we create by requesting a demo - just click the button below!  The post Top Five TED Talks on Technology! appeared first on Growth Engineering.

There is a shady subculture of people in the L&D industry. These people are the linchpins that hold a lot of the training together and create logical connections that help to convey the learning objectives in the most effective way. Still, they have to go through their life describing at length what their job title means to confused strangers. It can be a lonely life for the instructional designers of this world, but there are still some helpful souls out there who are more than willing to make that existence a little more bearable. Christy Tucker is one of those souls. Christy is an instructional designer par excellence. Her background has been varied enough to touch all forms of education, from school teaching to corporate training. Throughout her career, she has focussed on creating the most engaging experience possible and exploiting all of the tools and teachings she encounters to make life easier for learners. However, only the best teachers realise that they too are learners and Christy has never been reluctant to admit that she is always learning something new about instructional design. In as few as ten years, the job role has evolved and changed along with the technology that complements it. To help instructional designers to navigate this ever-changing landscape, Christy’s blog, Experience E-Learning, is filled with lots of interesting and useful articles. These posts cover everything from the most general questions (What does an instructional designer do?) to the minute details of course creation (Tips for Storytelling in Learning). She also regularly posts regular lists of the best eLearning articles that she has found around the web. Christy’s helpfulness isn’t limited to instructional designers. She helps many companies to engage their employees with learning that lets them practise skills that are actually meaningful to their jobs. This freelance project, Syniad Learning is named after the Welsh word for "idea". Here’s a quote from the site: Oliver Wendell Holmes said that a mind "once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." What new ideas can we explore to stretch learners’ minds? We couldn’t have put it better ourselves! If you want to find out more about Christy’s work, pop along to the blog or check out her portfolio. You can also keep up to date with the latest news by following her on Twitter. We at Growth Engineering are always seeking new ways to keep learners engaged. Besides producing custom eLearning, we’ve also developed the world’s #1 Gamified online learning platform, the Academy LMS. Find out what it can do for your business by clicking the button below.  

What is it about some companies? They just seem to exude awesomeness, screaming to people, "I’m a great place to work!" Is it the free coffee? Is it the pay and perks? Maybe the lax attitude to start times? Whatever it is, some organisations just seem to have it. We think - brace yourselves - that we’ve discovered what ‘it’ is. That’s right. The elusive thing. Here we go. Are you ready? Engagement. Employee engagement, to be specific - and we don’t mean the number of employees that are engaged or happily married. No, we’re talking about how enthused and motivated workers are and how this impacts upon not only their work ethic, their productivity and longevity, but how it rubs off on their colleagues, too. These ‘great’ companies, such as Google, Twitter and Facebook, are renowned for having an awesome company culture. We’ve written about company culture before, and why it’s important to have a fun, empowered company culture. But it’s not just about having fun at work and rewarding employees with money, days off and gift certificates. To really get employees engaged, senior management have got to highlight the importance of each and every individual in the organisation. A letter-opener may not feel that important, but what would the CEO do if they didn’t have their post on their desk when they walked through the door every morning? A marketing intern may not think they come very high up in the food chain, but how many leads are they generating, and how vital are leads to the success of the business? Once employees know and recognise that they all have a role to play in the company’s mission, the more engaged they’ll be. And once this happens, the company will exude this ‘thing’ that makes them so desirable. Your employees aren’t simply cogs in a machine. Well, they are, technically, if we think of the company as a unit and the employees as parts - but the thing to emphasise is that all cogs are important, from the part-timer who comes in to sort everyone out after a whirlwind few days and the MD’s right-hand who fields calls and organises meetings, to the technology wizards who create the product to sell and the finance team who keeps the business afloat. Although, of course, while a great company culture doesn’t necessarily stem from the perks, the free food, the beer and the nights out… They don’t exactly hurt! To find out more about what we do, click the button and download our white paper.  The post What Makes a Good Company Culture? appeared first on Growth Engineering.

We’re in the process of writing a white paper all about the common objections (and misconceptions!) we hear about online training. The grand unveiling will be next week, but we thought we’d give you a little teaser here to whet your appetite. The white paper features many ‘characters’ which we’ve based around the kinds of objections clients have. There’s Technophobe Trevor, Practical Pat and Social Sam, and they all have different concerns when it comes to moving their training online. Here’s Technophobe Trevor with a couple of worries about how well he and his employees will be able to pick up their new system: "I’m not very good on computers, really…" Oh, Trevor… Did you really think you’d have a computer thrown at you and have to guess how to use it? That we’d send you an email with a link but no instructions? Of course not! ‘Train the trainer’ is alive and well; any online learning organisation worth its salt has a dedicated Customer Excellence department that is fanatical about making sure you know exactly how to use your new Learning Management System. They’ll come into your office for a day or give you a guided tour over webinar to get you up to speed, and soon you’ll be showing others in your company how to use your new kit! In fact, we’ve got one of our new clients in the meeting room with our Customer Excellence Manager right now being taught how to use their swanky new Academy and how best to structure their training roll-out. "…My employees aren’t very handy with technology either!" Not to worry. The Academy is actually very simple to use, once you get the hang of it - and our gamified ‘Cool Tips’ tutorial makes this easy as pie. Upon their first login, learners are given a tutorial to show them around their new Learning Management System. They’ll learn where to find eLearning modules, how to take tests and assessments and what badges are up for grabs. What’s more, the tutorial is always available for them, should need a reminder! Besides, once we’ve shown you or your chosen Academy Admin all that your new LMS can do, you’ll become an oracle of expertise - any problems that learners encounter will be solved in a jiffy! Want to find out more? While you’re waiting patiently for us to finish our new white paper, why not check out one of our previous ones? The button below will take you to a research paper on gamification and what it can achieve for businesses:  The post "Online Learning Doesn’t Work" and Other Misconceptions appeared first on Growth Engineering.

We had such a great time at the E-Learning 20-20: Stay ahead of the game! seminar yesterday we just can’t wait until Day Two is over before writing about it! It was quite an early start for the Growth Engineering team as we set off from home at 6.30am, but that allowed us to (just!) arrive in time to set up the room for the day. Craig Weiss Delegates began arriving at 10am for registration - as well as tea, coffee and bacon and egg rolls - and Simon Blackburn, Growth Engineering’s Head Sales Bloke, kicked off the day at 10.30, separating out the delegates into four groups (yellow, blue, green and red) before handing over to eLearning expert extraordinaire Craig Weiss, founder and CEO of E-Learning 24/7.   Taking notes during Craig’s talk Craig kept the room entranced with his presentation on Learning Management Systems, what it takes to create truly good eLearning and what the future holds for the industry - his ‘2020’ prediction. Craig has very kindly allowed us to share his presentation deck with you - click here to download it and discover what five features define a ‘next generation’ Learning Management System, what the future holds for eLearning and who ranks among the best LMSs in the world. After Craig’s talk, the room split into two groups. Funnily enough, each group was run by a Craig - Craig Weiss continued to talk about Learning Management Systems and Next Gen learning, while Craig Mills from Game Retail, who is currently rolling out an online learning programme, hosted a fascinating discussion on implementing an LMS.   An Coppens - spot the prize on the table! The lunch break was followed by an excellent talk on gamification by An Coppens, Chief Game Changer at Gamification Nation. With a background in L&D and a passion for games, gamification is a topic made in heaven for An! During her talk An explained what gamification is, how it can be used in learning, what the difference is between good gamification and games that don’t work, and highlighted what kinds of game mechanics are useful to delight and excite different kinds of people. Click here to check out An’s presentation. An is a regular blogger on her website and on Gamification Nation - in fact, she is currently a contender in the UK Blog Awards and needs our help to reach the finals. You can vote for her in the ‘innovation’ category and in the ‘digital and technology’ category. Simon from GE joins a Breakout Group Following another breakout session, where both Craigs continued their discussions and An hosted a third group discussion, Simon announced the winning group - those people who had been contributing the most, asking the most thought-provoking questions and taking best advantage of being in the same room as some of the industry’s top oracles of wisdom. This time it was the Yellow group who triumphed, earning themselves a yummy bottle of spiced mulled wine each - just perfect for the cold winter nights! We’re really happy with how the seminar turned out - we think it was a resounding success, and hope to host many more in future! Thanks to e.learning age, Unicorn Training, Craig Weiss, An Coppens and Craig Mills for making it possible. Want to find out more about what we do? We love a good natter! Click the button below, leave your contact details and we’ll get in touch.  The post Staying Ahead of the Game appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Every week, we trawl the fertile estuaries of Learning and Development to find the people who are making a difference in the field - those who really "get it". This week, on our adventures, we came across a video on YouTube from this year’s Learning Live conference. This four-part series features a talk from Julian Stodd and although the production values are… functional… the talk itself is an excellent overview of the role played by social technologies in organisational learning today. Who is Julian Stodd, though?! Well, if the world of L&D was a fairy tale, Julian Stodd would by the mystical wizard doling out sage advice to all who seek it. We’re not just basing this simile on his exceptional beard, but on the fact that he really knows his stuff and he stands at the fringes of the world of learning, clearing the brambles of obscurity to uncover new territories. Julian specialises in that white magic known as Social Learning and how organisations can improve by adapting to what he deems the Social Age. In this Social Age, everybody enjoys unprecedented access to knowledge. As this formal aspect of learning becomes easier, this access is taken for granted and employees tend to develop in different ways. Mobile technology and social networks have created a culture in which people can much more easily turn to their communities for help. This change has occurred in almost every sphere of life, so it’s only natural to assume the same of organisational culture. Change is scary and the norm for most companies is to avoid risk and continue with the same old processes that have worked for so long. Meanwhile, however, the world is changing around them and these processes are gradually becoming irrelevant. The formal learning structure is being replaced by a more interactive and collaborative form of knowledge acquisition - more of a conversation than a sermon. If these organisations try to enforce control over the conversation, it simply moves to another network or a different platform, thus excluding those who tried to restrain it. As Julian Stodd says, the organisations that don’t embrace this new culture of collaboration will be left behind whilst the rest of the world rides the wave of social learning. This is just one of the truths exposed by Julian in a single talk. Make sure to check out the rest of his YouTube profile for more insights. His blog is also a great source of observations and features all about the power of social learning. If you prefer the longer form of writing, Julian also has several books available here. You can also get the latest from Julian by following him on Twitter and LinkedIn. Our Academy LMS has been built to help organisations deliver their training in ways that make more sense to today’s learners. This Gamified Social Learning Management System engages learners and gives them a platform to build communities that not only help them to learn, but help the entire organisation to change for the better! If you want to find out more about the power of social learning, just click the button below.  

It’s no secret that formal training alone isn’t massively effective in orchestrating real, lasting behavioural change. This is because of the ‘70:20:10’ problem - namely, only 10% of our knowledge is gained through formal training, while 70% is gained whilst working and 20% comes from observing others. However, when formal training is combined with online learning, training is much more effective! Picture this: your learners have gone through the formal training online, in the form of eLearning modules and Assessments. They’re now all meeting up in the ‘real world’ for a workshop,  already armed with the knowledge they need. Technology in classroom settings also makes the process of learning more engaging and dynamic. Videos capture learners’ attention in ways that books simply can’t, and are fantastic for demonstrating facts that would be impossible in real life. They’ve gone through the eLearning unit, taken the test and received the badge. So when they come to the classroom, the focus can be on discussing the topics, digesting the content and getting a deeper understanding of what they’ve learnt. They’ll come away from the classroom full of knowledge and plans to use it - resulting in real behavioural change. We did this ourselves during our Sales Superstar Programme - where we invited ten aspiring salespeople to undertake training to get a free Level 3 Diploma from the ISMM (Institute of Sales and Marketing Management). Over four months, the Superstars took eight eLearning modules, completed the associated assessments and prepared presentations which they gave at four tutor-led workshops. The result? An engaged, motivated group of learners that discussed the issues in hand at depth. The learners were happy, the tutors were happy and we were delighted with the results of the programme! We’re tremendously proud of our Superstars. Click here to find out more about the Sales Superstar Programme and how you can join! Want to discover more about technology in the classroom? Click the button below!  The post Combining Online and Offline Worlds of Learning appeared first on Growth Engineering.

When you’re rolling out an online learning programme - or any new company training, for that matter - it’s vitally important that it’s marketed to employees in the correct way. You may want to cut corners and simply email your workforce with standardised, boring information about what they have to do, how to do it and the deadline by which it should be done. But believe us when we say that really won’t secure the learner buy-in that you need for a successful Learning and Development plan. We know some of us prefer to watch videos rather than read, so we’ve taken the liberty of converting the information below into video format. So pick whichever method of information delivery you prefer, sit back and enjoy. Oh, and let us know what you think using the comment box below! 6 Top Tips to Rock Your Online Learning Roll-out: 1. Marketing When you’re rolling out a training programme it’s important to get the marketing correct. Your employees need to find out about the L&D plan, right? Never market your training programme via email alone: it’s a cardinal sin and will condemn your training roll-out to eternal damnation! Instead, use internal marketing techniques like intranet announcements, meetings, introductory videos and site visits to spread the word, inform the masses and build curiosity, excitement and momentum. 2. What’s the problem? If employees don’t care - or know - about the problem that the training is trying to solve, they won’t care about achieving change. But once you describe the problem to them in ways they can understand and relate to, they’ll be more enthusiastic. Employees need to know why they’re being asked to learn these things and change their behaviours. They’re busy, after all, so you’ve got to make it seem worthwhile. Why is a change needed? What do they need to do? 3. Importance If employees don’t see their training as important, they won’t be motivated or engaged to log on to their Learning Management Systems and work their way through eLearning modules. You’ve got to push the training programme up their list of priorities. All these points will help to achieve this, but don’t stop there if you can think of any other ways to reiterate the importance of the training, which will be unique to your organisation and situation. 4. Urgency Creating a sense of urgency around the issue will help rally the troops. Employees won’t strive to complete their training if they think they have all year to do it, or if the problem isn’t very pressing. So emphasise how important it is for them to achieve the changes now rather than in the future. You also need to make sure they know how the campaign will be run, measured and reported on - it’s good to be transparent. 5. Mission Frame the training as a mission to get employees pumped and engaged. If they think they are vital to the success of the mission (or L&D roll-out), they’ll be incredibly motivated to do all they can to help it progress and come to fruition. 6. Get social Discuss, practise and reinforce the training socially to get individuals on board, encourage further learning and development, see real behavioural change and make the training a resounding success. When learners are active contributors, they’ll take charge of the training programme - so you won’t have to! We hope you liked these six tips! Want to find out more? Download our white paper on securing return on investment on your training roll-out by clicking the button below!  The post 6 Top Tips to Rock Your Online Learning Roll-out appeared first on Growth Engineering.

This week, while we were coming up with the latest learning hero, An Coppens’ name popped up. We’d just seen her speak at the E-Learning 20-20 seminar last week and she was fab! The conversation went something like this: "Why don’t we include An Coppens?" "I think she’s already been included." "Are you sure? I can’t see her here." "She must be there somewhere." Due to some collective oversight, it has taken us until now to award An Coppens with one of our much-coveted Learning Hero badges. Well now we’re more than happy to correct that oversight! So what makes An Coppens such a deserving candidate? An is an award winning business coach who is just as evangelical as we are about the power of gamification. If you’re new to the term, An defines it thus: "Gamification is the application of game dynamics, game psychology and game mechanics to non-game situations and applications". Like us, An believes that real results can only be achieved if the effort is made to engage those involved, regardless of whether that’s in sales, recruitment or learning and development. The best way to make these things engaging is to make them fun, and gamification is the best way to do that. In her E-Learning 20-20 talk (view the presentation here), An dismissed common misconceptions - for example, it’s still a widely held belief that the world of gaming is populated mainly by children and teenagers. We learned that a mere 18% of gamers are below the age of 18, whereas a whopping 53% are between the ages of 18 and 49! An is not blind to the potential of facts such as this. As the Chief Game Changer at Gamification Nation Ltd, An offers her expertise and provides online learning programs that bring out the best in people and turn businesses around. As well as her work at Gamification Nation, she’s also an author and, as we’ve seen, a very interesting speaker! If you want to find out more about An and her work you can visit her website, or check out Gamification Nation for more information about the biggest thing to happen to learner engagement since gold stars! Don’t forget to keep updated with the latest news from Anland by following her on Twitter or Facebook. There’s also a whole other Twitter feed from Gamification Nation to make sure you never tire of gamification-related tweets! Figuratively speaking, we’re skipping through a meadow of engagement alongside people like An Coppens. If you’re tired of sitting on the sidelines watching everyone else have fun, click on the button below to find out how gamification can take your business to new levels of success!  

When it comes to making the move from classroom-based training programmes to online learning, there are a few questions you should ask yourself. It’s one thing to say you want to take your training online, but is the organisation ready for the change? Can you really benefit from bringing eLearning into your company? In fact, how will you benefit? Here’s what you need to ask yourself to work out whether you’re ready to enter the exciting world of online learning: Do you need eLearning at all? Will it really benefit you? What do you hope eLearning will accomplish that real-world training cannot? How much are you currently spending on training? What is your current return on investment (ROI)? Where are you spending the most money (e.g. travel expenses, tutor costs) and where do you want to make savings? How much can you expect to save by going through eLearning? What is the projected ROI and what does it depend on? Are your staff computer savvy or do you need to train them? Although there is nothing wrong with needing to train your staff how to use the new technology, you will need to take into account how long this might take and at what expense. Of course, most Learning Technologies companies will help with this - the Customer Excellence team will be on hand to show Academy Admins and Managers how to use their Learning Management System, so they can then teach individual learners. Will there be any resistance to eLearning from within the organisation? Just because you love the idea of eLearning, doesn’t mean senior management or other employees will as well! If you have a desire to take learning online but fear your colleagues or managers won’t be too enthusiastic, make sure you approach them with some hard facts and evidence of how online learning can help to secure a fantastic return on investment. Check out the research paper below for more info! Will any of your trainers feel insecure about eLearning? Making the decision to take training online can make trainers feel like they are being sidelined. However, if you can subject matter experts on board, real-world training can still be utilised to complement online training. In fact, when combined with eLearning, classroom training can allow trainers and workshop leaders to take on a new and important role as facilitator of knowledge sharing, rather than dissemination. Does your management support your initiatives? Pushing against the status quo is hard enough even with management support. Your best bet is to get them on your side to help fight your corner - the research paper above will help! Do you have sufficient budget or will you be able to get the management to release the funds required? Related to the ROI questions above, it’s important to know whether you have the budget to move forward. That’s why it’s useful to work out the projected return on investment of eLearning vs classroom training - the difference may well sway the decision in your favour. We wrote a research article on this topic: Delivering Return on Investment on your Online Training Programme. So, what do you think? Are you ready for online learning, or do you need to find out a bit more first? Here are a couple of options: click the button below to request a demo of our Academy Learning Management System to discover what we’re all about… …or click below to download a research paper on how online learning can boost the success of your business: