We’ve all been there: we’ll be minding our own business, working away, when suddenly The Email will land in our inbox. We’ve been invited to take an eLearning unit in compliance. Your heart sinks. Your hands get clammy. Your pupils dilate. If you don’t catch it quickly enough you’ll enter full ‘panic mode’ stage. Sound familiar? Unfortunately, while compliance training is essential, it’s not exactly riveting. But, rather more fortunately, there’s a lot that can be done to make compliance training fun and engaging. Here are just a few improvements that can be made to make compliance training fun: Personalise eLearning Create eLearning units with the functionality to remember and use people’s names, roles and companies. It’s much more engaging for a learner to have to learn and answer questions about their own company, rather than some faceless organisation they’ve never heard of before. Similarly, using a learner’s name in the eLearning gets their attention and brings them more fully into the learning. Allow data input When we can apply learning content to our own experiences, we are able to learn far more. That’s why it’s so important that learners are able to input their own data (thoughts, experiences, suggestions and plans) into eLearning units. Rather than reading a scenario and answering the question, "What should Ryan do?" by selecting an option from a list, learners are much more involved. They should be asked: "What would you do in this situation?" and then given free rein to type their answers in a text box. It’s so much more engaging! Remember these answers While it’s incredibly useful for learners to be able to input their experiences into the eLearning, it’s also important that they are able to take this information ‘home’ with them after completing the eLearning. That’s why the Academy LMS allows learners to download their data sheets - they get to see all the thinking they’d done during the unit. When this is combined with questions that ask learners to plan how they might implement this newfound learning in their own workplace, it’s clear to see that this allows learners to come away from the eLearning unit with an already-formed plan of attack. From there, it’s simple to make the transition and actually use all the new information they’ve been given in their daily work lives. Interactive questions Compliance training relies on testing learners’ knowledge to ensure they are familiar with all the procedures and policies in place. Questions within the eLearning unit are obvious ways to achieve this and gain confidence that employees know all they need to know - but, as with a lot of ‘standard’ eLearning, quiz questions can be incredibly boring and poorly executed! There are only so many multiple choice questions a learner can answer before they give up the will to live. On the other hand, drag and drop exercises are more involving and interesting; as are free text boxes (where the eLearning monitors for trigger words) and completing more game-based tests - quizzes can even be themed and set out in fun ways, like a snakes and ladders board! Use gamification in eLearning To round off everything here and make compliance training fun and engaging, it’s a great idea to gamify the online learning process. So when learners input their data and answer questions correctly, award them badges and points. The more questions they get right, the more rewards they get; and once they reach a certain number of points, they can ‘level up’ and unlock new challenges. It’s an easy way to make compliance training much more exciting! Find out more about this last point - adding gamification to eLearning - by clicking the button below!    The post Making Compliance Training Fun! appeared first on Growth Engineering.

If you want to keep your business growing and thriving, training and development is an obvious solution. But what can you do when your workforce is geographically dispersed? What are your options when your organisation operates in all four corners of the world, or your salespeople live and work in different parts of the country (or continent!)? Online learning has a clear advantage in situations like this - you’re able to roll out training and development programmes to all employees at once, no matter where they are based. The New York office can commence their training at the same time (bearing in mind timezones!) as the Australian workforce and the London division. There are no constraints. Compare this to real-world training and imagine the difficulty (and cost!) involved in flying everyone over to one location, or repeating the training days at different locations around the world. It makes us shaky just thinking about it! But, of course, it’s not as simple as signing all your employees up to their new Learning Management System (LMS) and then setting them free. You may not want to the France team to see what the German team is up to, or maybe you want to segment the European offices from the American offices. With the Academy LMS, it’s easy as pie to slice up your employees and serve them just what they need access to. Learners can be arranged in groups depending on their language, department, country or role - ensuring that the right content is being delivered to the right people. It makes sense, right? You might also be worried about how you’ll get your employees to actually log onto their LMS. If there’s no one monitoring them, how can you be sure they’ll go on, take their eLearning courses and improve their skills and knowledge? It’s a valid concern: after all, eLearning has a pretty awful reputation of being more boring than a 3-hour queue at the post office. Luckily, we have a bit of extra power up our sleeves that makes sure employees are engaged with their learning: gamification. Gamification on Learning Management Systems involves using points, badges, achievements, levels and leaderboards to get learners excited and motivated about their learning. They’ll want to take courses and interact with their Academy LMS in order to gain badges and climb the leaderboard. So we’ve seen that it’s possible to save money and effort by training your geographically-dispersed workforce - and also that it is most definitely possible to keep them all motivated and engaged with their online learning. But what about one of the main issues of international businesses: language barriers? Organising training when your employees are dotted all over the world is difficult enough - but when your employees all speak different languages, rolling out eLearning becomes even more challenging! You might be wondering whether you need to purchase different LMSs for each language, or whether all employees will have to access the same language, despite the issues with comprehension this might incur. Luckily, we recognise the importance of making products accessible to all employees (we have offices scattered around the globe ourselves!), so we’ve made sure the Academy LMS is available in a number of languages, including French, German, Dutch, Spanish and Italian, and we’re adding new languages all the time. In fact, if there’s a standard language you need that we don’t currently support, we’re happy to work on adding it. And what’s even better is that learners can select their own language, so Academy Admins don’t have to work out which language is right for each person! An Admin simply chooses the default language, and learners can then change to any of our predefined languages themselves. Making sure online learning is accessible to everyone in your organisation, no matter their location or language, is vital in rolling out a truly successful online training plan and securing a great return on investment. Find out what else will get you a fab ROI by downloading our free white paper below!    The post Making Online Learning Accessible for a Global Workforce appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Being able to measure and monitor learner progress is an important part of rolling out an online training programme. After all, if you can’t be sure it’s paying off, what’s the point? The Academy LMS is a Learning Management System that focuses on securing learner engagement - which is great for learners, great for the training ROI and great for you as an organisation. But we realise that you can’t simply take our word for it: how can you be sure that engagement really equates to results? Sure, learners may be taking a lot of eLearning units, gaining numerous badges and sharing them on social media, but how much of the training content are they really learning? And will this learning ever translate to real-life changes in behaviour? We know that understanding how well your training programme is working is key to establishing your return on investment. That’s why we’ve focused on creating a reporting suite that does exactly what it says on the tin - it provides great reports that allow you to truly monitor learner progress and ensure the online learning is a success. Our reporting suite is one of the most comprehensive in the industry, designed to give you unprecedented oversight into the inner workings of your learners. There’s no need to sift through enormous spreadsheets, print of reams of paper or manually work out individual progress. The Academy LMS gives you what you want to know, and only that. Here’s how: Filters You can filter your reports by country, region, division, or your own pre-defined groups. Want to conduct some A/B testing to see which eLearning units are most effective, or in which order the modules should be consumed? No problem - simply group your learners according to which learning method they used and then run the report; you’ll be able to compare the two to see which technique works best. This helps you to tailor your future training to gain the best results for your organisation - because no two organisations are alike in their training needs. Push reports Reporting on the Academy LMS is seriously low maintenance. The Academy can automatically push the right reports to the right people, freeing up time for the more important tasks and allowing managers and admins to become more efficient. Say you want a specific report run every week. All you’ll need to do is set up the report requirements (including when, to whom it should be sent, and other stipulations) and set it to repeat each week or month. Easy, right? Future-proofing As with all aspects of the Academy LMS, we’re passionate about continual improvements. We regularly update and innovate our reporting suite to reflect both client needs and trends that matter. That way you can be sure that if you need to know something, you’ll be able to find it out easily. The reporting suite on the Academy LMS truly is a remarkable feature. It makes monitoring the effectiveness of your online learning incredibly easy and straight-forward, which is vital when so much depends on the return on investment your training programme might secure. To find out more about the Academy LMS, its features, and what it can do for your organisation, get in touch using the button below and let us give you the grand tour!  The post Making Reporting Easy with the Academy LMS appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Social learning plays an important role in our Academy LMS. Our social learning features encourage learners to collaborate and share their knowledge, expanding their skillset, increasing learning and improving motivation. It’s all because learning, like a lot of things in life, is more fun when other people are involved! Fostering a social environment makes great learning journeys even more awesome, making the whole experience not only inspiring, enjoyable and engaging, but also collaborative and friendly, too. Traditional learning can be quite a lonely experience. In classrooms, learners are told not to talk, not to copy each other’s work and certainly not to sit near each other during tests. And traditional classroom training is similar - without next generation functionality, learners may as well be solo on their Learning Management System, since they don’t get the chance to interact with others or even know of their presence! Our Learning Management System, on the other hand, is a next gen LMS that revolves around social features and gamification functionality to make learning much more fun, engaging and sociable. Learners are able to chat with their peers about what they’ve been learning, share ideas, collaborate to solve problems and expand their knowledge in ways they could hardly have dreamt of when they embarked on their learning journey. Learning on the Academy LMS is never lonely! And because learners are happier, more engaged and chatting about the learning topics, they actually learn more, too. This is because a great proportion of our knowledge comes from ‘informal’ learning - around 90% - compared to 10% of knowledge which we gain via ‘formal’ learning, like classroom training and eLearning modules. So being able to continue recalling information and learning more about the topics after the initial formal training is very beneficial for learners; their knowledge increases far more than it would do if they simply took an eLearning unit (or attended a classroom training event) and then left it at that. Check out the video below, which explains some of the Academy LMS’s social features that will supercharge learning! Want to find out more? Sign up for a demo tour of the Academy LMS by clicking the button below!  The post Social Learning on the Academy LMS appeared first on Growth Engineering.

The experiences we have in school as children can often dictate how we feel about and approach learning as adult learners in later life. If we had negative classroom experiences as children, it’s far more likely that we’ll try to avoid adult training programmes, or at least enter them with a weary heart. But the thing is, we are not the same people we were at school. Adults have grown, matured and developed, and as such when they enter back into the world of learning they have a different set of requirements and require a different style of teaching. Tutors, trainers and those creating eLearning for adult learners can learn a thing or two about teaching adults by following Malcolm Knowles’ five principles of adult learning (check the link for a really in-depth explanation). Malcolm Knowles observed that adult learners learn best when: They understand why they’re being taught it (i.e. why it is important) They have the freedom to learn their own way Learning is experiential (i.e. they can try it out and put it into practice) The time is right for them to learn The process is positive and encouraging Let’s look at these in more detail: 1. Make sure your adult learners understand why they’re undergoing training Adult learners undertaking eLearning courses under their own steam - perhaps Open University courses - are likely to be naturally enthusiastic about their training. But when it comes to employees who might feel they are being ‘forced’ into workplace training, there can be a bit of push-back. That’s why it’s important to explain exactly how the training will benefit these employees. For instance, it may help to improve their job prospects; they might be worried about stagnating in their current role, so knowing that they have the ability to progress - once they’ve completed the training and gained the required skills - can be motivating for them. If an adult learner has been signed up to an eLearning course called ‘Improving Closing Skills in Sales’ then it’s a good idea to emphasise why closing skills are important and why they’re being required to learn about it: it’ll be easier to generate business, quicker to go through the sales process, and their performance will improve. 2. Learn their own way We’re all different and therefore we all learn differently. Learning styles vary from person to person and are as unique as fingerprints. What works for some people may either prove as ineffective as a paper umbrella or as infuriatingly painful as stinging nettle underpants for others. That’s why you should ensure all learning styles are catered for, both in the eLearning unit itself and as learning continues beyond. Here’s how: Visual learners need videos, diagrams and photos Auditory learners need a voiceover or video Kinaesthetic learners need to be able to put something into practice to reinforce the learning (so give them the opportunity to complete exercises to apply the knowledge) Most adult learners will use all of these learning styles, but ensuring that each style is included in every eLearning unit or online training program will ensure all adult learners are catered for. 3. Learning is experiential This principle emphasises the importance of encouraging activity within learning - whether that takes the form of working out problems, conducting tests and trials, imagining scenarios and planning solutions, or acting out roleplays. 4. The time is right for them to learn This principle is quite tricky to apply when it comes to adult learning in the workplace, because it’s not the individual who necessarily requests the training. Instead, it could be that the organisation requires all employees to undertake compliance training, or new product training. So it may be the ‘right time’ to learn about these things, but it’s not necessarily the adult learner who is making the decision. In this situation, it can be useful to look back to principle #1 and emphasise the importance of training to the learner - this way, they can see the benefits and begin to feel as though it was their choice to start the training. 5. The process is positive and encouraging As we hinted at in the beginning of this article, adult learners often have negative memories of learning in school environments. That’s why it’s vital that as adults they are encouraged, engaged and motivated, and that the learning journey is a positive and enjoyable one. After all, if a learner doesn’t really want to be there, they’ll automatically be starting off on a negative footing. You can make the learning journey engaging, encouraging and positive for adult learners by making sure the process is ‘gamified’ (i.e. gamification functionality is used to make learning fun) and social, in that adult learners are able to work together and share knowledge. This social, informal learning aspect is important because it’s how adult learners naturally work together in their daily jobs. You can find out more about how to make learning fun and engaging for adult learners by downloading the free white paper below:    The post Adult Learners: How to Engage & Motivate Them to Learn appeared first on Growth Engineering.

It’s a sad state of affairs, but over a quarter of organisations are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their Learning Management System, a Capterra LMS survey report has found. The report, published on 8 April 2015, surveyed over 100 users of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) to discover how people buy and use the software. You can read the full Capterra LMS report here, or carry on reading below for an overview of what we think are the most interesting findings. Satisfaction not guaranteed While it may seem that 63% of users being satisfied with their LMS is something to write home about, learning technologies companies can’t afford to overlook the 37% who strongly dislike or hate their LMS. Not only does it reflect poorly on a company if their LMS is detested by its clients, but knowing that there are some supremely dissatisfied LMS users out there can prove ripe for picking by other, more forward- and fast-thinking companies who are more passionate about impressing their clients and creating online learning solutions that truly knock socks off (hello!). Falling in and out of love Interestingly, the Capterra LMS survey found that satisfaction ratings were susceptible to a ‘honeymoon period’. Satisfaction was found to be at its highest (86%) from 6 months until the first year, after which it sharply fell to just 44% for year 1. Satisfaction then rose slowly in years 2 to 5 (52%) before jumping in years 5-10 (73%) and then levelling off at a respectable 80% after more than ten years. This would indicate that, much like a marriage, a relationship with an LMS is susceptible to peaks and troughs. After the initial gush of lust wears off, the adoration turns to ambivalence (with some contempt thrown in) until, after a few years, you become so fond of your Learning Management System that you begin to love it, warts and all, and can’t imagine your life without it. Feature failure The main reasons given for dissatisfaction with a Learning Management System were a lack of features (44%), difficulty of use (22%), a lack of support (19%) and a high price tag (11%). Clearly, at a time when technology is moving forward at a rapid pace and so many aspects of our lives are made easier by next generation solutions and applications, people expect the same kinds of functionality on their Learning Management System. And why shouldn’t they?! It’s reassuring to know that our Learning Management System, the Academy LMS, satisfies a lot of customer cravings for cool capability. Capterra’s survey found that 22% of respondents who have an LMS wished it had gamification features, and 18% wished there were social learning features. As the #1 Gamified LMS, #1 Next-Gen LMS and overall #1 LMS in the world, we’re confident that the Academy LMS has all bases covered in this regard! Teeming with talent A further feature that LMS users wished they had access to was integrated talent management functionality. 28% of respondents have this on their wishlist, and we don’t blame them. It simply makes sense to house all kinds of training, talent and performance management together and make everything easily accessible for learners. That’s why we’ve created the Performance Centre, an all-encompassing area of our LMS that allows for tracking objectives and KPIs, organising reviews, ensuring company values and principles are adhered to and planning for professional development. These features are just a drop in the ocean of our Learning Management System. The Academy has even more than this to offer - click the button below, fill in the form and we’ll get in touch to arrange a demo to show you just what the Academy is capable of. After all, as the Capterra LMS survey revealed, 57% of people will demo at least three Learning Management Systems before making their ultimate decision. Don’t you think it’s time to book yours in now?    The post Capterra LMS Survey - Our Key Takeaways appeared first on Growth Engineering.

We know, from both individual experience and empirical research, that in order to get other people to pay attention to what we’re saying, we need to make them curious. A sense of curiosity will keep people engaged and hanging on our every word, rather than zoning out and going through the recipe for tonight’s spaghetti bolognese in their heads! And the same is true when it comes to learning. Learners will only become motivated to learn and improve their knowledge if they are curious and invested in the topic. But making people curious is easier said than done! There is no switch to flip, magic word to say or spell to cast to make people curious. In fact, trying too hard to create curiosity can have the opposite effect - it can make us bored and disinterested! What makes us curious? In order to boost curiosity, we first need to know exactly what it is that makes people curious. It can help by looking at situations which elicit a feeling of curiosity. We get curious when we encounter something new, surprising or perplexing. That much is obvious. Think about stumbling across a new shop in the town centre: because it’s new, we feel curious about it - sometimes even enough to walk in and investigate ourselves! George Loewenstein, a professor and psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University, looked at curiosity in depth in The Psychology of Curiosity: Review and Reinterpretation. According to George, curiosity comes from an ‘information gap’. This information gap theory states that curiosity begins when we become aware of a gap in our knowledge or understanding. We feel a gnawing hunger to fix this wrong, gain the knowledge we lack and bridge the gap of missing information. Highlighting the gap One of the ways to make people aware of a gap in their knowledge - and one which we utilise on the Academy LMS in the form of social learning - is when your peers appear to know something that you don’t. Don’t we all find it infuriating to hear from a friend, "Have you heard about XYZ? No? Oh, never mind then…" While we didn’t care about XYZ before, now we have been made aware of our lack of knowledge we can’t resist the urge to find out more and close the gap: we’ve been made curious! Social Learning To boost social learning on the Academy LMS (and therefore increase learner curiosity) we give learners numerous opportunities to prove their knowledge. Forums and Insight Groups allow them to share what they’ve just learnt, input their thoughts and ideas, and suggest further reading for each other. If someone logs on to find they don’t know half the things that their fellow learners are sharing and talking about, their curiosity will be sparked: they’ll be aware of a gap in their knowledge and will work to remedy it promptly, whether this is by going through an extra eLearning unit or two, checking out the suggested further reading or posting their own questions. In this way, social learning will boost curiosity, thereby helping to improve knowledge and getting learners more engaged and motivated in their training. Find out more about the importance of social learning by downloading our free white paper below!    The post Social Learning: Making People Curious appeared first on Growth Engineering.

On Valentine’s Day 2015, we thought we’d give all of our lovely readers, customers and learners a very special treat. We created an amorous V-Day themed comic to spread the love and show the world that romance isn’t dead! The comic was a huge success (who knew people loved a love story?) and, as we did with our previous comic, Night of the Learning Dead, we decided to transform There’s Something About Genie into a video! The comic opens with Al, an L&D manager, looking all googly-eyed at Jasmine, who works next door in the HR department. Al has been trying for months to get Jasmine to notice him, but nothing he does has worked - she has no idea he even exists, the poor chap. With time running out before Valentine’s Day and Al being a romantic at heart, Al knows he has to do something quickly if he is to win Jasmine’s heart before the big day. Then the perfect opportunity seems to present itself: the HR department needs a new piece of health and safety eLearning, and who better to create it than Al? "Here’s my chance!" thinks Al. "If I create an awesome piece of eLearning, Jasmine is bound to notice me and fall in love!" Oh, Al. If only creating jaw-dropping eLearning is as simple as you… Will Al succeed in his mission to win Jasmine over and have a Valentine’s Day to remember? Or will he fall at the first hurdle and torment Jasmine with a mind-numbingly boring piece of eLearning that sends her straight to sleep…? Check out the video below to see how Al’s plan pans out - and watch out for Genie’s magical arrival!   What do you think? If you want to find out more about Genie and what he can do for your eLearning, click the button below and we’ll show you what else he has up his sleeve!    The post There’s Something About Genie! - Watch the Video appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Each year the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) is held in Qatar. It’s the premier international platform that is dedicated to innovation and creative action in education. The theme of the 2014 WISE summit was ‘Imagine-Create-Learn: Creativity at the Heart of Education,’ and one of the topics on the agenda was the future of classroom training. It’s an issue which we are very interested in, as we have already pointed out some of the main changes happening to classroom learning here and now. To prepare for the event, WISE conducted a survey of over 600 experts - among whom were Professor Noam Chomsky and Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia - to establish what the future of classroom learning might look like. The survey, ‘School in 2030,’ found that almost half the respondents believed that online content will become the number 1 most important source of knowledge by 2030, rather than a ‘brick and mortar’ school, which came in second. It also suggested that when it comes to classroom learning, the role of teachers will change drastically from that delivering knowledge to learners, to guiding and mentoring students through their individual learning journeys. Interestingly, the survey also pointed out that most experts believe that classroom learning will evolve to encompass more personal, tailored learning content for learners, as opposed to the current standardised content. We couldn’t be happier to read these findings, as they are things that we’ve believed in for the past few years! In our white paper, ‘Classroom Training Goes Tech: Bringing Technology into the Classroom,’ we explain that tutors will move on from their role of disseminating information to guiding learners, and will act as facilitators of learning rather than strictly keeping to a syllabus. We explain the importance of utilising all technology available to us to boost classroom learning, and emphasise how vital it is that learners are able to tailor their learning to their particular needs, and do so while working in teams and sharing knowledge. Here’s an excerpt of the survey (click here to access the full document): "No more ‘teachers’, lectures or imposed curricula: henceforth, the brick-and-mortar school will no longer be a place where students are taught theoretical knowledge, but instead a social environment where they receive guidance, enabling them to interact with their peers and build a diverse toolkit that will better prepare them for professional life. Innovation, not only technological but also social and pedagogical, will help transform the traditional ‘classrooms’ into future ‘meeting rooms’ where cooperative learning takes place and students prepare for their working future." The use of online content as the main source of knowledge also fills us with joy: we’re passionate that online learning is the solution to a whole bunch of problems - a lack of learner engagement, poor recall, insufficient socialisation and accessibility problems to name but a few. Indeed, we suggest in the white paper that classroom learning needs to embrace technology in order to survive and flourish. There are ways to combine online and offline learning and encourage social learning to really boost understanding, engagement, enjoyment and overall learning, as you’ll see in our white paper - just click the button below to find out how we suggest the classroom learning revolution will occur!    The post The Future of Classroom Learning: Predictions for 2030 appeared first on Growth Engineering.

We’re really excited to announce that we are Bronze sponsors of the 2015 AITD National Conference in Australia! The AITD (which stands for Australian Institute of Training and Development) National Conference will be held on 13 and 14 May 2015 at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney. It’s a premier training and development event and has earned a fab reputation for providing delegates with high-quality, dynamic presentations on an exciting range of innovative topics - which is right up our street! As well as being Bronze sponsors of the AITD National Conference 2015, we’ll also be exhibiting our exciting products on Stand 12. The event will give you the chance to test drive our new game-based authoring tool, Genie, and see for yourself just why our Learning Management System, the Academy LMS, has been ranked the #1 LMS in the entire universe for 2015. Speaking of the Academy LMS being the best thing since sliced bread, the #1 ranking was bestowed upon us by the all-knowledgeable eLearning expert Craig Weiss, CEO of E-Learning 24/7. Each year he reviews over 600 LMSs (what a saint, that must take a while!) and releases lists of the Top 50. This year, he ranked the Academy LMS the #1 in the world. AITD attendees will be overjoyed to hear that they’ll get to experience Craig’s knowledge first hand, as he’s hosting a not-to-be-missed talk at the event. His presentation, ‘No more LMS secrets,’ will give conference attendees the inside scoop on the LMS industry and show you what feature sets to look out for in the next few years, the latest LMS trends, and which LMSs to watch out for in 2015. The AITD National Conference will be our first foray into Australian training and development events, so we’re really looking forward to seeing what the land down under has to offer! If you’re going to the AITD National Conference this year, come and say hello! You can pre-book a meeting with one of our friendly team by emailing us or clicking the button below to fill out our Book a Meeting form: Here’s a bit information on the AITD: the Australian Institute of Training and Development membership allows training, learning and development professionals to join a body of likeminded people and provides numerous opportunities for professional development, networking, recognition and access to an extensive portfolio of magazines, journals and eBooks. More information is available via the website at www.aitd.com.au/the-australian-institute-of-training-and-development      The post AITD National Conference 2015 in Sydney, Australia - We’ll be there! appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Making sure your eLearning actually engages your learners is vital to the success of the project. Without learner engagement, the eLearning won’t be effective. If learners aren’t paying attention to what they’re doing, going through the eLearning unit won’t lead to any real learning. It’s an issue that we come across time and again when talking to business owners, L&D professionals and training managers. They have the eLearning units, they have the Learning Management System, they have the desire to roll out their training programme: but their learner engagement is set to a big fat zero! We stumbled across this article on Business2Community today that lists 7 important things you can do to quickly and easily improve your eLearning and get learners more engaged with what they’re being taught. We wanted to add a few more thoughts to their list, and extend it to show you how to really supercharge your eLearning. Head to Business2Community to read the whole article: Make the eLearning units shorter: As the article states, our attention spans are mostly pretty rubbish these days (read more on that here). That’s why shorter, bite-sized eLearning is much more effective at securing learner engagement and therefore improving learning. But more than that, when eLearning units are short, we’re not only more likely to squeeze studying into our busy day, but we feel that sense of accomplishment at having finished a unit more often. And as we’ve said before, a feeling of accomplishment is important to motivate and engage learners in their activities. Sort the images out: How many times do we have to say it? Stock images are, by and large, pretty awful. They’re obviously posed, cheesy and often jar with your content. It’s far more effective to take the time to commission a set of photos or images that are relevant to your organisation, on-brand and not eye-wateringly cheesy! It’s also worth saying that images should complement the text - not try to distract from boring reams of content or overly-complicated language. Uncomplicate the complicated: As we said above, images shouldn’t be used to distract from confusing language or huge paragraphs. How should it be done, then? Well, the answer is not to have overly long or complicated text in the first place! Break up paragraphs with bullet points, split text over a few screens, use diagrams where possible, put information into tables, use voice-overs or videos instead… there are numerous ways to make on-screen text easier to read. Add assessments: As the article says, you need inbuilt tests or assessments to check that learners have actually been, you know, learning! We do this with a variety of tests and quizzes, in numerous formats - from scenario-based questions with free text answer boxes and multiple choice questions, to sudden death pop-up quizzes and experience-specific data entry to prove learners can apply the content to their own situation. Collect feedback: You won’t really know what your learners thought about the eLearning unit unless you ask them, or allow them the opportunity to tell you how super-duper-fantastic-smantastic they found the module (or not…). You can use in-depth surveys to do this, or a simple ‘rate this piece of content out of 5’ selection may be enough to give you an idea of what your learners thought. Beat the forgetting curve: This is split into two tips in the article (see ‘Follow up after training’ and ‘Create a few pieces of reminder content or post-training assessment questions’). We know from the ‘forgetting curve’ theory that we forget about half of what we learn after just a few days if we don’t work to recall it. That’s why it’s important to follow up with extra questions, assessments, projects or real-life applications to thoroughly cement the training content in learners’ noggins. One of the ways we achieve this (and beat the forgetting curve) is to encourage social learning on our Learning Management System, the Academy LMS. So once a learner has finished their eLearning, they’ll be able to join relevant groups and forums where they can discuss the things they learnt. By going over the content again, focusing on different aspects, asking and answering questions, and recommending further reading, learners remember what they’ve been taught - which results in much better return on investment on the training programme. Review your learning objectives: It’s important that each eLearning unit has an associated learning objective as it guides the training and helps to categorise failure and success. If the objective is to increase employees’ sales knowledge and you find that post-training they are selling 40% more, you can be assured that the eLearning unit is a success. If, on the other hand, the number of sales doesn’t change at all, you won’t have achieved the learning objective - a worrying situation to be in! Make eLearning fun: This isn’t one of Business2Community’s tips, but it’s something we believe in strongly. When things are fun, we enjoy them more, and if we enjoy something we will pay attention to it and be motivated to do said activity more. In the case of eLearning, this means that the more fun we find the unit, the more we’ll learn, and we’ll approach further eLearning units with a positive attitude. Securing learner engagement can sometimes seem like an impossible task. But as you’ve seen, there are a few tricks that can boost engagement and get learners to enjoy their eLearning. Click the button below to download our free white paper on learner engagement and see for yourself how easy it is to make learners happy and get them motivated!  The post Does Your eLearning Secure Learner Engagement? appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Whenever you roll out a training plan, you need to think about what ‘success’ looks like. In online learning terms, these metrics might include how many people are using your Learning Management System (LMS) on a daily or weekly basis, how long they’re spending on it, how much work they’re doing whilst there and what they think about their LMS. Good Learning Management Systems, by their very nature, capture a lot of data that can help to highlight whether learners are engaged or not. This data can map learner engagement and even pinpoint learners that are at risk of falling behind or failing. Here are 5 learner engagement metrics, available from your LMS, that will help you work out whether your learners are engaged or not: Learner Engagement Metric 1: Recency How recently have you seen your learners logging on to their LMS? Is this number stable, decreasing, or growing? If your LMS is new, perhaps you had an initial surge of learners logging on almost every minute in the early days, but you’re noticing this number tapering off now to one per hour or so. Should you be worried? Well, not always. There will always be an increase in interest when a new training programme is launched - learners are curious, so will naturally want to take a look. It’s the number after this point that will need to be monitored. If the recency is dropping from hourly, to daily, to weekly, it’s likely that there is an issue with your LMS - it might not be engaging your learners. Learner Engagement Metric 2: Frequency How often does each learner log on? You’ll be able to monitor the average frequency of learners, which can tell you whether you have a small number of learners logging on frequently, whether there are a couple of extremely dedicated learners logging on enough to skew the results, or if you’ve hit upon a comfortable, stable average. A stable average with a few outliers is what you should be aiming for - a small number of learners logging on frequently does not necessarily mean that they are adequately engaged. Indeed, the link between frequency and engagement is not entirely clear at all. If the trend shows that the most successful learners logged onto their LMS most frequently, does that mean they were the most engaged? Perhaps - but it’s not completely clear. Maybe they simply had to log on more times to complete training because they didn’t progress through the whole eLearning module in one go? This would actually imply they were less engaged than their fellow learners who logged on fewer times, but got more done during each session! Learner Engagement Metric 3: Duration The above problem is why it’s also important to monitor duration. How long are learners actually staying on their LMS, and what are they doing? Given that social learning is so important to actually cement training in learners’ minds, the duration data will need to be considered carefully. It’s actually not as useful for learners to spend 99% of their time in eLearning modules - we gain only 10% of our knowledge from ‘formal’ training, after all, so the ideal ratio of activity might be closer to that suggested by the ’70:20:10 problem’ (read: What is leaky knowledge costing your organisation?). Therefore an ideal duration split might be closer to spending 10% of their time in eLearning units, and 90% on forums, in groups, downloading extra reading materials and chatting with others. Learner Engagement Metric 4: Virility Has your LMS ‘gone viral’ within your organisation? Has word spread about how great it is, how fun it is to use and how useful it is in boosting performance and improving prospects? A solid marketing plan, both pre- and post-launch, can aid this. If employees are excited about the training, counting down the days until launch and can’t wait to try it out, the virility of the training will be significantly higher than if it suddenly appears in employees’ inboxes with no fanfare. Learner Engagement Metric 5: Rating When you ask learners what they think of their LMS, what do they say? Do they say it’s the best thing since sliced bread, or are they more reticent in revealing their thoughts? Don’t overlook the effect of reporter bias, which is the idea that respondents might only answer questions with answers they think you’ll want to hear. Also be wary of asking leading questions. The question, "This LMS is much better than the classroom training you had before, right?" won’t really tell you anything. Instead, asking learners to anonymously rank and rate their LMS will be more revealing. These metrics - and others - are useful in telling you how successful your LMS is and how engaged your learners might be. You’ll need to take them all into account, as you can’t rely on just one or two to give you a proper indication of learner engagement. After all, without knowing how your employees are rating the LMS, how can you be sure it’s going viral for the right reasons? And if you can’t monitor how long your learners are staying logged in, the number of logins is all but meaningless. Learner engagement metrics will be useful in working out the return on investment on your training programme. To make sure you’re achieving the right ROI for you, download our free white paper below:    The post 5 Learner Engagement Metrics to Delight Your Bosses appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Not only will we be exhibiting at the AITD National Conference on 13 and 14 May, but we’re brimming with excitement to tell you all that we’ll be following it up with an equally-awesome appearance at the ATD Conference and Exposition in Orlando, Florida, on 17 - 20 May. The ATD (Association for Talent Development) International Conference and Exposition is a fantastic event for talent development, with world-class content, hands-on learning, networking opportunities and world-renowned keynote speakers. It will be our first time exhibiting at the show, so we’re determined to pull out all the stops and delight all delegates who visit us on our stand, number 224. Attendees will get to enjoy the full Genie Game-Based Authoring Tool experience and find out how to create really engaging, fun game-based eLearning units, and see our award-winning Academy LMS - ranked the #1 LMS in the world for 2015 - in action! We’ve also got a few games and fun events planned for attendees (including a photo booth complete with Genie-themed props!) so be sure to come by Stand 224 to play some games, win some badges and get your photo taken! The event will be taking place at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, so it’s not only a great opportunity to meet with likeminded professionals and expand your knowledge, but you’ll also get to take advantage of all the area has to offer - hello, Disney World! Juliette Denny, Managing Director of Growth Engineering, said: "We’re really excited to be exhibiting at such a well-renowned conference. We have a lot of fun things planned on our stand for delegates, and we can’t wait to show Genie off. "With 10,500 attendees from around the world, we’re confident that ATD will be a highlight of the year for Growth Engineering. Bring it on!" You can register online for the event by clicking here. It’s likely that the event will be pretty jam-packed and busy. If you want to guarantee that you’ll be able to have a chat with one of our lovely team, book yourself in a meeting slot with us. Just click the button below and select the ATD Conference and Exposition in the drop-down list. Can’t wait to see you there!    The post Join us at the ATD Conference and Exposition in Orlando on 17-20 May 2015! appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Sometimes, despite your best intentions, your plan to add technology to the classroom via eLearning can simply fall flat and fail. It could be issues with the technology, the content itself, or even a lack of marketing and excitement around the project. In the news recently there was a story about a $1.3billion eLearning scheme in the US that has been unsuccessful. It was a 2013 project aimed to provide education via iPads to 650,000 LA students - a great idea, and a great way to bring technology into the classroom. According to netimperative, however, the iPad school project is in turmoil, having been deemed incomplete and unsecure - content provider Pearson has been accused of failing to fulfil their side of the bargain in providing the eLearning materials, and Apple is under fire for letting pupils bypass security features. In March it was revealed that only two out of the 69 schools involved were regularly using Pearson’s eLearning materials on their iPads, while the rest had ‘given up on attempting regular use of the app’, an internal memo stated. The schools involved have since approached Apple and its project partners (including Pearson and Lenovo) to request refunds. Click here to read the rest of the article. It’s terribly sad that what might have been children’s first experiences of eLearning have been so disappointing. It certainly doesn’t give the kids a good impression of eLearning or the use of technology in learning in general. Unfortunately, bad experiences like this can ruin a person’s view of online learning for good. If we enjoy learning as a child, we’ll be more receptive to continuing our education as adults. One of the reasons we have such trouble with training as adults is due to poor experiences as children: stuck in stuffy classrooms, bored by distracted teachers, teased by other children, forced to sit through boring or ineffective learning - these things stick with us and even the words ‘training’ and ‘learning’ can fill us with dread in adulthood. With any luck, the bad experiences that these LA schoolchildren have had with their eLearning will fade from their minds, replaced by a joy to learn - whether it’s on iPads, in classrooms, on Learning Management Systems or at work as adults. We’ve written about the problems poor classroom training can cause in the past - just click the button below to read more and find out how to bring eLearning into the classroom easily and effectively:  The post Using eLearning in the Classroom to Boost Learning appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Training in some industries is made particularly difficult by a casual, part-time, or shift-working employee base. The care professions, for instance, may have a bank of casual workers who are called upon as and when needed, and some may work only overnight. Getting all employees to undertake training when they work such varied, unpredictable hours is a challenge - for traditional training, that is. Online learning makes rolling out training and development to a highly casual and dispersed workforce much more straightforward. Here’s how: Easily accessible With online learning, you don’t have to worry about getting your employees to one centralised location for their training. Instead, they can log onto their Learning Management Systems remotely, from wherever they are in the world. Not only is this more convenient for employees, but in certain industries - care and nursing in particular - it’s impossible to take all employees away from their jobs for a day of training. Available anytime Employees are able to log onto their Learning Management Systems at any time of the day or night, which means they are able to take their training regardless of when their shift begins or ends. They can log on during a quiet period in their overnight shift, or when they get home from work - it’s incredibly flexible. And the more flexible training is, the more likely employees are to take it. This also means that casual staff (seasonal, temporary or sporadic workers) can access the training as and when they need it. Rather than putting employees through the course when they may not use the information for months, they can log on and learn when they need to. Much more convenient! Sociable In the past, there were a couple of options open to employees: workshop or classroom-based training days, or individual training, maybe through watching a video or reading a textbook. Aside from the extra work involved in handing out, marking and keeping track of learning in this way, it’s also pretty lonely. Evidence shows that we learn best when we can observe others and put our learning into practice, so it’s important that we are able to converse and share our thoughts with others. Online learning also ticks this box, too. Rather than a Learning Management System being a lonely place, learners are able to interact to a huge degree. They can chat, share resources, ask each other questions and talk about the subject matter. This means learning isn’t lonely - another bonus! Cheaper Because you don’t have to hold numerous real-life training sessions for employees who can’t make certain dates, or have to regularly host training days for newcomers or casual staff, online learning works out much more economical. The eLearning units you create are always there and available to staff. When a new starter joins and is added to your HR system, their LMS account can be automatically created; they’ll instantly have all the relevant content available to them, to go through at their own pace, in their own time. Reportable You might be worried that if employees can access their training at all times of the day (and night), it may be hard to keep track of who is doing what, how far they have progressed, how well they’ve done and so on. Luckily, Learning Management Systems like ours have this covered. The Academy LMS’s Reporting Suite provides a sophisticated, in-depth analysis of all kinds of data and statistics that will show you how your learners are doing. You’ll be able to see how many people are logging on and how often, how long they’re staying logged in, and what they’re working on while they are on their LMS. This information will show you how successful your training programme is proving to be, and can indicate ways to improve it. Fun Online learning has the potential to be hugely enjoyable and engaging for learners. All that’s needed is a bit of imagination and a bunch of fun gamification features like badges, achievements, points and leaderboards. Find out more about how to make online learning fun by downloading our free white paper below!  The post Online Learning Programmes for Casual Workers appeared first on Growth Engineering.

It was suggested in a recent article that the future of training lies in mentoring - that the majority of organisations were choosing to mentor their employees rather than put them through ‘formal’ training courses. Maggie Slowik, author of the article, found that 65% of procurement teams provide training to employees in the form of mentoring and on-the-job training. Maggie was a ‘bit surprised’ at the findings, and we agree. Here’s why: 70:20:10 We’ve spoken about the 70:20:10 format of learning before. It’s the idea that only 10% of what we learn comes through formal channels, like classroom-based learning, eLearning units and textbooks. 20% then comes via observation of and working with others, and the largest proportion occurs through actually putting the learning content into practice ‘on the job’. So the finding that 65% of teams are providing training just through mentoring (i.e. observation of others) and on-the-job training is a bit surprising. Where does the formal learning content come from? Could it be that 65% of procurement teams are failing to provide their employees with adequate fact-based, theoretical or structured learning content? Or does formal learning not play such an important role in achieving behavioural change in organisations? Formal learning isn’t dead The problem with organisations focusing on informal learning is that they’re neglecting the 10% of learning which occurs through formal channels. In some situations, this is absolutely vital - it’s often not possible to put certain training into practice without endangering lives (learning about what happens when electrical wiring goes wrong), travelling to far-flung places (learning the differences between orang-utan and chimpanzee breeding habits) or waiting for natural disasters to strike before learning how to act. Formal learning, on the other hand, can give learners a good basis from which to then expand their knowledge. Once they’ve learned what will happen if they touch a live wire, they can then practise correct wiring techniques on the job or through mentoring. The purpose of training, after all, is to achieve desired changes in behaviour. Whether this is selling more, working more productively, causing fewer errors or improving management skills, we will be more likely to see lasting behavioural changes when we understand not just how to do something, but why - and often that is what the formal training tells us. Want to find out more about achieving behavioural changes in your employees? We wrote an article about how gamification (badges, achievements, points and leaderboards) in learning can be aligned to business objectives to create lasting behaviour change. Read it below!    The post Does the Future of Training Lie in Mentoring? appeared first on Growth Engineering.

It’s no secret that we at Growth Engineering are strong believers of the power of online learning to upskill entire workforces and create real, lasting behaviour change. The evidence is there: online learning engages learners, gets them motivated in their training and helps organisations to flourish. But that doesn’t mean we don’t also see the benefit of blended learning. Blended learning, you may know, involves combining the online and offline worlds of learning to create a solution which is engaging, effective and transformative. Generally speaking, blended learning would involve the use of technology in classrooms to supplement the syllabus. It can be very effective, yet there is another method, known as ‘flipping’, which is even more so. Flipping the classroom Rather than supplementing classroom activities with technology, flipping the classroom involves turning the whole process on its head. Rather than teaching learners the syllabus and assigning learners content in class that they then need to work on in their own time, the flipped classroom would encourage learners to undertake the relevant eLearning units before the classroom event. This way, no time is wasted trying to teach the content during class - instead, learners can jump straight into discussions, debates and applying the knowledge. Social learning Being able to discuss the content is important because, as we know, only 10% of our knowledge comes from ‘formal’ training like eLearning units. 70% then comes from putting what we learn into practice and 20% occurs through observation of others, which includes discussions and sharing knowledge. Not as much time can be dedicated to this form of learning with the traditional classroom set-up because the syllabus is taught during sessions, which doesn’t give learners as much opportunity for discussion, group work or debate. Individuality One of the other benefits of a blended learning - or flipped classroom - approach is that it allows for individual learning styles. Assigning learners content to go through in their own time, prior to the classroom session, means they can go through things at their own speed and often in their preferred format. For instance, visual learners can supplement their learning by watching relevant videos, and people who prefer to learn by putting things into practice will have the opportunity to do so back in the classroom. Interactivity Rather than being forced to sit and watch a lecturer droning on for hours and hours (yawn), learners get the opportunity to truly interact and engage with the content and get their hands dirty. It’s pretty clear that blended learning does make a difference. A 2010 meta-analysis by the US Department of Education found that students exposed to both face-to-face and online learning were more successful than students exposed to one form of training or another. You can read the report here. Want to find out more about how you can bring technology into the classroom to create a more social, engaging and effective classroom environment? Download our free white paper below!    The post Flipping the Classroom: A Good Approach? appeared first on Growth Engineering.

"What’s in it for me?" is a question which drives almost every decision we make. From the moment we wake up in the morning, ‘What’s in it for me?’ is the subconscious mantra playing quietly in the back of our heads. These words help us choose which clothes to wear, what people you listen to, how to prioritise our work, what calls to make, what work you do, and so on. ‘What’s in it for me?’ is not always about what we will get out of doing something - it can be about how it makes us feel, too. We naturally avoid doing things which make us feel bad, so in a decision between eating an extra hot chilli and a bowl of cornflakes for breakfast, it’s pretty clear that we’ll take the action that will help us avoid negative feelings (in this case, pain!). Some other feelings which inspire us into action are pride, recognition, enjoyment, a sense of achievement, and so on. Very rarely will we choose to do something in the full knowledge that it will cause us to feel embarrassed, upset, disappointed or useless. Our subconscious mind helps us to make appropriate decisions based on our experiences, motivations and predictions of rewards and risks. That’s why we often do silly things after having a few drinks. The restraint we usually exercise and the importance we usually place on working out the causes and effects of our actions are diminished, and we end up making poor choices. It’s also why it’s vitally important that the benefits of training are clear to employees. If we can understand how the training will benefit us, we’re far more likely to make the decision to throw ourselves into it. "What’s the point of training?" Unfortunately, a clear ‘What’s in it for me?’ is often overlooked in training. Employees and teams are told that training is available to them, but they often don’t take advantage of it because they are not made explicitly aware of how enormously beneficial it will be to them. A travesty! These employees usually think they have better things to do than training. In their minds the training isn’t worth their time, or isn’t important enough for them to put off their other priorities. Thinking in this way can cause a lot of problems in the long term. Employees that don’t progress and learn new skills will fall behind and fail, which could cause the organisation to fail too. On the other hand, organisations which train employees will become far more successful - they’ll be able to grow, change and cultivate new talent and ideas. That’s why it’s vital to show employees what’s in it for them. In other words, training needs to be joined up. Employees should be able to see the direct relationship between training and success. They shouldn’t wonder if learning new things will benefit them - this should be made explicitly clear! "If you take this training you will be able to X, Y, Z." Here’s how we show learners the light and get them engaged with their training: Tie the learning to annual performance reviews; make them a form of training needs identification Make the learning part of ‘role competencies’ and a requirement for promotion Conduct training needs assessments prior to the training to ensure that the training is relevant to the individual Give recognition for the training done - this could be in the form of a qualification, certificate or even a virtual badge Make sure the above recognition is visible - create leaderboards that show how much work employees are putting into their training and who is progressing furthest Combine individual training courses into qualifications that are necessary for role development and promotion - a management role could require a specific management qualification that employees can undertake in their own time, for instance. Once they have it, they can apply for management These tactics show employees that the training they are being asked to undertake is useful to their lives, important to the company and even essential to their progression within the company. If they want to succeed, they’ll need to get learning. What’s in it for them? Career progression. Who wouldn’t be motivated by that!? Read more about how to get employees engaged with their training by downloading our free white paper below:    The post Engaging the Learner: ‘What’s in it for me?’ appeared first on Growth Engineering.

A report put together by EDUCAUSE, on behalf on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, found that while 99% of educational institutions use Learning Management Systems in some form, only 41% of those surveyed report using the LMS to encourage social interaction outside of the classroom. This means that 59% of Learning Management Systems are being used almost purely as a means of disseminating information and getting learners to undertake training. While that’s clearly an important part of what LMSs are created for, learning doesn’t stop once we walk out of the classroom or click the ‘X’ in the corner of an eLearning unit. No; learning continues far beyond the initial learning event. And while Learning Management Systems have been highly successful in making the administration of learning easier, they do not necessarily help to encourage learning itself. The issue lies in thinking about Learning Management Systems as ‘systems’ to ‘manage’ ‘learning’. They are far more than that! Good LMSs could just as easily be called Learner Engagement Machines, Learning and Engagement Engines, Devices to Delight Learners - ok, maybe not, but you see where we’re going with it. The point is that LMSs should not just be used to deliver content and monitor learners. They should actively engage learners and help to develop a culture of collaboration and an attitude that learning is important, never-ending and incredibly valuable. The Next Generation LMS A new way of seeing learning and Learning Management Systems necessitates a new kind of LMS. An LMS that puts the learner experience at its heart; one that works to actively engage learners, rather than simply monitor them. An LMS which boosts social learning and makes the whole learning journey fun for learners, to get them hooked and loving learning again. The answer? A Gamified Social LMS! Gamification secures the learner engagement that is so desperately lacking on most Learning Management Systems, while social features will get learners communicating, socialising, sharing knowledge, and create a learning community of active learners. Learn more about how a Gamified Social LMS can revolutionise online learning - download the free white paper below.  The post ‘Learner Engagement Engines’ - a New Name for LMS? appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Neuroscience has come such a long way. What in the past could not be explained or monitored can now be viewed through brain scans and neuroimaging. Previously incredible phenomena are now explained by neural pathways, neurotransmitters and synaptic surges. Take learning, for instance. We now know the processes involved in making learning stick in our minds. For instance, the hippocampus - located in the lower section of the brain - controls memories of learning (Foerde & Shohamy, 2011). The stronger the hippocampal activation during learning, the more we will remember the content and be able to recall the information at a later date. Neuroscience also shows us what can happen when these processes are unable to function: a 1957 study of patient H.M. revealed that damage to the hippocampus and surrounding areas led to a severe impairment in the ability to form new memories for facts and events (Scoville & Milner, 1957). Interesting, though, H.M. and patients like him could still learn new procedures and habits, so long as they were acquired gradually, such as playing the piano. So when it comes to learning specific facts and tactics during training programmes at work, the hippocampus is pretty essential. But it’s not the only mechanism that impacts on learning and memory. Dopamine Research in neuroscience also tell us how important dopamine is in learning processes. Numerous studies (e.g. Fiorillo, Tobler, & Schultz, 2003; Schultz, Apicella, & Ljungberg, 1993; Waelti, Dickinson, & Schultz, 2001) show that dopamine is critical in learning to predict rewarding outcomes and working to obtain them. Basically, when we get an unexpected reward, dopamine neurons begin firing. If we’re rewarded enough for a specific action, the dopamine response shifts to occur immediately following the action for which we gain the reward, rather than when we receive the reward itself. You can see how this impacts on learning - if we’re regularly rewarded for undertaking an eLearning module, for instance, we’ll soon learn to associate eLearning with a pleasant feeling (dopamine is known as the feel-good hormone, after all). We’ll then be more receptive to taking eLearning units in the future, because doing so makes us feel good. That’s why we make sure to reward learners on the Academy LMS by utilising lots of cool gamification functionality. Gamification - the application of gaming mechanics and metaphors, like points, badges and leaderboards, to non-game scenarios - makes difficult or boring tasks like learning tricky subjects much more enjoyable and motivates us to pursue training whole-heartedly. If this was a bit heavy-going for you, don’t worry! Just download the free white paper below to find out exactly how to engage your learners in their training - you’ll find tips and tricks there that you can start implementing right away!    The post Your Brain on eLearning: Dopamine and the Hippocampus appeared first on Growth Engineering.

The goal of Learning and Development programmes is ultimately to make change happen in the workplace. Once a problem or discrepancy is identified, it’s the job of L&D to step in, create a plan of action and put training in place to solve the issue or bridge the gap between knowledge and action. This is easier said than done, however. There are many things which may stand against successful training programmes at work - time constraints, lack of budget, lack of buy-in from senior management, lack of employee engagement, and more. Even just designing the training - before rolling it out or assessing its effectiveness - involves meticulous planning, numerous considerations and some trial and error. Picking the right training solution How can you really be sure which training solution is best for your organisation? What will your employees respond to? When it comes to training, you can’t judge an employee’s receptiveness on their age or other demographics. Just because someone is older doesn’t necessarily mean that online learning won’t be an effective training solution. Anyone can learn to use a Learning Management System, especially one like the Academy LMS, which has an intuitive interface specifically designed to engage learners and be simple to use. Selecting your add-ons, extras and ooh-la-las Again, don’t let preconceived notions get in the way of creating what could be a really engaging training programme for employees. Take gamification for instance. You might be concerned that the older population of your employees won’t enjoy receiving badges and points for undertaking their training, so you might steer clear of gamified training plans. However, evidence shows that gamification actually works for all demographics - let’s face it, who doesn’t like playing games? We’ve all been doing it since we were kids! Securing sign-off Even when you’ve got the bare bones of a plan in place, you’ll likely need to get sign-off from senior management. This might be difficult if you can’t prove to them the expected return on investment from the training. After all, they need reassurance that the training will be successful, that the investment won’t be wasted and that they will get to see real, lasting behavioural changes. They might also have reservations about the particular training programme you go for. Take eLearning for instance. It often has a bad reputation for being boring, ineffective, difficult to monitor and generally pretty useless. But that’s just it - it’s only a reputation. Of course you’ll think ‘all’ eLearning is naff if you experienced a really awful eLearning module that made you want to pull out your hair and climb out the window. But not all eLearning is like that - nowadays it’s sophisticated, engaging, fun and incredibly effective. There may be other criticisms of online learning that are holding senior management back from signing off on your exciting new training solution. We put together a handy white paper of the most common objections and how to overcome them, which you can use as ammo to fire back when management are giving you the run-around. Download it for free below!    The post Picking the Right Training Solution appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Research into happiness and productivity shows quite conclusively that the happier someone is, the more productive they are (Oswald, Proto & Sgroi, 2014). You’ve probably experienced it yourself: when you’re feeling down in the dumps, it’s hard to get motivated to perform even the most simple of tasks. You’re more likely to drag your heels, half-heartedly stagger through your routine and leave dirty dishes to fester by the sink for yet another day. On the other hand, when you’re happy, feeling positive and having a quintessentially good day, you’ll have a spring in your step, sail through tough tasks and be spurred on to give the house a thorough clean. This effect is so strong that people who are feeling happy (i.e. have a ‘positive affect’) are 12% more productive than those feeling miserable and morose (Oswald et al., 2014). Just think what you could accomplish over time with a daily 12% increase in productivity! This statistic is one of the reasons why we decided to embark on our mission to make online learning fun for learners. If they’re having fun, they’re likely to be happier, and if they’re happier, they’ll be more productive and will learn much more than if they hated the learning process and found it mind-numbingly, eye-wateringly boring. Other research has found that when we are having fun, our brains are 68% more active and can absorb a whopping 84% more information (BusyPatch.com). Coupled with a 12% increase in productivity, it’s clear to see that making learning fun will do great things for knowledge acquisition. CONSENSUS We’re not the only company that sees the benefit of making online learning fun. In fact, it’s now quite widely accepted that eLearning modules should be engaging and enjoyable for learners. The general consensus is that eLearning should grab learners’ attention, capture their imagination and get them thinking - not that every piece of eLearning achieves this, of course, but at least it’s recognised as something to aim for! However, there seems to be something huge that has been overlooked by learning technologies companies, up until now: eLearning should be fun and engaging for the people that make it, as well as the learners that consume it! This is because the same effects of happiness, fun, productivity and brain activity apply to content creators as well as the learners who consume the eLearning. If the process is fun, creators will receive the same productivity boost as learners. Of course, fun also provokes fun - enjoyable, fun experiences are inspiring, and a fun creative process can help to create fun content that learners will love. On the flip side, a boring, unimaginative process will lead to boring, unimaginative eLearning, which isn’t fun for the creator or the learner! It was a moment of revelation when we put all this together. As proud creators of the #1 Gamified LMS in the world, we like to think we’ve cracked making learning fun for learners. However, it was only when we heard the woes of our clients who had to use traditional authoring tools that we realised, my god, eLearning development SUCKS! We’ve always believed that online learning should be fun and engaging for learners. Now we have a new belief to shout from the rooftops: eLearning should be fun and engaging for the people who work so hard to create it! Content creators - by which we mean anyone involved in creating eLearning units, from developers, Instructional Designers and subject matter experts (SMEs) to L&D professionals and reviewers - deserve to enjoy the process of creating eLearning that knocks socks off. If the end product is engaging for learners, the means of creating it should be, too. After all, why should learners get all the fun? Download the white paper for free below:  The post Why You Should Make Online Learning Fun appeared first on Growth Engineering.

As a learning technology company at the forefront of innovation, we take pride in pushing ourselves further, developing our products and really making waves in our industry. We take a lot of inspiration from Steve Jobs - the late Apple CEO - was well known for his revolutionary outlook. Here we’ve selected some of our favourite Steve Jobs quotes that we live and work by that will get you thinking, improving, and creating great products and services: "I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next." Bask too long in the glory of your success and you’ll find yourself overshadowed by the competition. Things move so quickly, particularly in technology, that it’s vital to continue innovating. Yes, celebrate your successes, but don’t let them derail you! We’ve been riding the high of our Learning Management System - the Academy LMS - being crowned the world’s #1 LMS since January this year, but that doesn’t mean we’ve become stagnant. Far from it, in fact! We’ve since developed the Performance Centre, a comprehensive suite of performance management tools that aid organisations in upskilling their employees and give the employees a clear route to success. You can check it out here! "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." Our new authoring tool, Genie, is probably unlike any authoring tool you’ve seen. Why? Because our dedicated development team didn’t look at other authoring tools during the development process. They haven’t followed the preconceived notions of what an eLearning content tool should look like, how it should perform or what it should produce. Instead, through working with eLearning creators, discovering their needs and desires, we created a game-based authoring tool that is totally unique. Now that’s true innovation. "When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through." Amen to that, Steve! Everything we create - from the Academy LMS to Genie - is beautiful throughout. It’s not only a pleasant experience for the learners, but Academy Admins and Managers, as well as eLearning creators, enjoy a well-designed user experience too. After all, why should learners get all the fun and enjoyment? "A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them." This is what we’ve found time and again, particularly when it comes to gamification. People say that they don’t need a gamified Learning Management System because they never have in the past. Well, that’s exactly why they need one now - they’re talking to us because their employees aren’t engaged with their training. Gamification is the ideal solution because it engages and motivates learners. And as soon as we show people what gamification on Learning Management Systems looks like, they embrace it wholeheartedly! You can find out more about gamification in online learning here. "I’m as proud of many of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to a thousand things." When creating technology solutions, it can sometimes be hard to say, ‘No.’ If everyone around you is doing one particular thing, it’s easy to get drawn into doing it too. But in order to stand out from the crowd, you have to do just that - say ‘No’ and stand your ground. So when we’re asked whether the Academy LMS has Feature #523 and we say ‘No,’ we don’t offer up apologies or make promises to bring that feature into production. Instead, we explain why we’re different, what features we have that render #523 unnecessary, and show how that feature really isn’t as important as the buyer has been led to believe. Unless, of course, there is a feature that we see and think, WOW! In this case, it’ll get added to our development roadmap, but we won’t copy - whatever we do, we do our own way. Want to find out more about the Academy LMS and how we’re different? Pop your details into our contact form by clicking the button below and we will get in touch to give you a guided tour!    The post 5 Steve Jobs Quotes That We Live and Work By appeared first on Growth Engineering.

From setting your TV to record shows when you’re half way across the country and video conferencing to listening to your unborn child’s heartbeat and automatically monitoring ongoing changes in your fitness level, we use our mobile phones and tablets for so much - we’re almost inseparable now. We carry around so much power in our pockets and bags these days. They say our mobile phones are now more powerful than the computers used to put man on the moon, so it stands to reason that we’ll want to use them for almost everything we do. This upsurge in mobile phone and tablet use has, not surprisingly, pervaded the eLearning industry too. More and more learners are demanding eLearning units that can be taken on their mobiles and Learning Management Systems that function as well on tablets as on desktop PCs and laptops. Making Learning Management Systems responsive isn’t enough. It may suit tablet use, but mobile phones will require a specialised app that is designed solely for the device to make eLearning more accessible and easy to use. No one likes to scroll sideways in order to see all of the screen, yet equally, having to scroll down through miles of rearranged text isn’t fun. Putting the learner experience at the heart of everything we create is something that we’re proud of here at Growth Engineering. That’s why we’ve made the Academy LMS completely responsive on tablets, and why we’re rolling out a mobile app to our current clients. It allows learners to access their training whenever and wherever they are, whether they’re at work, on the move, having a lazy day on the sofa or squeezing in an eLearning unit in the dentist’s waiting room. The mobile app even allows learners to access their training when they have no internet connection. They just need to download the eLearning materials while they are within range, then can travel wherever they please - or turn off data to save money - to take the training. When they reconnect, everything they’ve been done will be automatically pushed through to update their account. That’s not to say that learners only want to learn on mobiles or tablets. The desktop PC and laptop still have their place in eLearning. There are somethings which are simply much more efficient on computers, like writing assessments or entering text within eLearning units. But the option is there for learners to take their learning via any means they see fit - and this is something they really value. Learn more about the Academy LMS: click the button below, fill out the form and we’ll get in touch to arrange a demo tour!    The post The Importance of Mobile in Online Learning appeared first on Growth Engineering.