Building Smarter Government 2013-05-20T16:12:00-04:00 http://gov.2elearning.com/ Elearning TYPO3 - get.content.right tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1985 2013-05-20T15:37:54-04:00 2013-05-20T15:37:54-04:00 —Sources: CareerBuilder, Harris Interactive]]> tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1978 2013-05-06T18:14:54-04:00 2013-05-06T18:14:17-04:00 Recent Aberdeen Group research on video learning showed that top-performing enterprises are learning how to harness the power of two-way video learning, providing access to video content from subject-matter experts, and even enabling workers to create their own videos as powerful ways to share knowledge and support traditional learning efforts. The Learning Challenge Today’s organizations are constantly shifting to keep up with marketplace demand, and they look to learning to help keep their staff, customers and other stakeholders aligned to these continual shifts. Many organizations also face critical skill shortages, and understand that they must build these critical capabilities from within. But when it comes to using learning to overcome these obstacles, organizations face two key challenges: reinforcing formal learning back on the job (cited by 57% of respondents as one of the top two most critical challenges executing learning strategy) and linking learning programs to business results (cited by 43%). Luckily, video learning technologies can help overcome these challenges. While the data clearly shows that the instructor-led, formal training programs are still the most widely used learning modalities (cited by 91% of survey respondents) top-performing organizations are looking for tools that help them support their formal learning programs after the fact. Tools like video, which can be accessed on demand or that can enable people to ask experts for help, are critical to supporting this goal. Video can help engage individuals that are visual learners, and particularly when video is divided into short searchable chunks, it is useful for learners who respond best to just-in-time learning that is applicable to the current challenge at hand. Video is also useful tool to capture knowledge from experts. When someone is asked a question and records their answer on video, it becomes part of the knowledge base for the organization and captures that expertise. Organizations using video as the delivery mechanism for learning content are improving their overall achievement of organizational goals, are doing better when it comes to engaging employees, and are also more successful in developing their own internal candidates for key positions (including leadership and customer critical positions). When video content is integrated as part of a learning strategy, it is helping organizations achieve differentiated results. It is also important to note the video content is influencing overall business performance, enhancing the individual experience, as well as helping organizations mitigate the critical external challenge — that of limited skill availability in the external marketplace. All Video is Not Created Equal The phrase “video content” encompasses several different types of video uses. They can include externally sourced video content designed specifically for corporate learning, internally generated video, video conferencing and support of formal learning events, and more. Fifty-nine percent of all Best-in-Class organizations from Aberdeen’s latest Learning and Performance study indicate they are using some form of video content. But organizations are also using two-way video, user-generated video and video collaboration tools as part of their learning strategy. Top-performing organizations should look at video as a suite of solutions that can offer a variety of benefits. The ability to stream video content, interact via video, create, store, and search for video are all critical capabilities within a well-rounded learning strategy. And in particular, organizations look to avenues to record, store and share user-generated video as Best-in-Class organizations are almost twice as likely to utilize user-created content as part of their learning strategy. The Intersection of Mobile, Social and Video Three critical strategies that often go hand-in-hand by the use of mobile, social and video learning: 1) Best-in-Class organizations are 93% more likely to have social learning as part of their formal learning strategy (54% vs. 28%); 2) 94% more likely to leverage user-created video content (35% vs. 18%); and 3) 119% more likely to use mobile learning solutions (35% vs. 18%). The research has also shown the significance of self-service learning portals among Best-in-Class organizations. Mobile and social learning tools fulfill this need for self-service access to content, encompassing real-time chat, access to frequently asked questions, blogs and wikis, on-demand access documents, courses and video learning. Additionally, 67% of Best-in-Class organizations indicate that they have identified subject-matter experts and made them available to others to support learning efforts. Mobile and social tools can help that one individual subject-matter expert not only reach more learners, but they can also help capture the interactions and insights of that subject matter expert. And increasingly, video is the medium by which those interactions and insights are captured. Learning and compliance often go hand-in-hand within organizations as well, and this is an area where video can be extremely helpful. By capturing a class or learning event that is tied to compliance needs on video, organizations can ensure that everyone who views that content is getting the exact same message and learning to do things the exact same way. Key Insights The use of video in the corporate environment will continue to expand in the coming months and years. Organizations not already using video as a significant part of their overall learning strategy should start exploring their options now. Providing video collaboration and streaming tools, access to both internally and externally created content, and even the creation of company specific video content internally are all part of the mix for top-performing organizations. And particularly given the challenges organizations face when it comes to developing the next generation of talent, video can be a powerful way to capture the insights of your existing experts and use them to develop the next wave of leaders. — The author of this article, Mollie Lombardi, is principal analyst for the Aberdeen Group Human Capital Management research practice. Lombardi is also a popular speaker at Elearning! magazine events. For more information on this or other research topics, visit www.aberdeen.com.]]> tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1977 2013-05-01T16:42:24-04:00 2013-05-01T16:36:26-04:00 —More info: http://tincanapi.com]]> tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1976 2013-05-01T16:43:13-04:00 2013-05-01T16:35:10-04:00 —More info: www.wikispaces.com]]> tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1975 2013-05-01T16:32:58-04:00 2013-05-01T16:32:00-04:00 —More info: www.lionsbiztech.com]]> tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1974 2013-05-01T16:45:29-04:00 2013-05-01T16:30:12-04:00 —Download the free guide: 
www.amvonet.com/lcms-guide/]]> tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1973 2013-05-01T16:29:02-04:00 2013-05-01T16:29:02-04:00 tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1972 2013-05-01T16:27:21-04:00 2013-05-01T16:26:39-04:00 —Full report: www.nasponline.org/resources/framework-safe-and-successful-schools.aspx]]> tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1971 2013-05-01T14:52:01-04:00 2013-05-01T14:52:01-04:00 —More info: www.newworldofwork.com]]> tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1966 2013-04-06T05:32:20-04:00 2013-04-06T03:49:25-04:00 Forward-thinking companies of the 21st century are affecting a change in the way they approach the investment in a learning management system (LMS). No longer is the LMS just an efficient and effective means to educate and train  employees. It’s become a more versatile tool, capable of being extended to all aspects of an enterprise, from partner programs, supplier/vendor/contractor channels and distributor networks to franchise networks and customer support channels. The delivery of training, licensing and certification programs to these “external” channels increases partner, supplier, distributor and customer satisfaction and product usage. In short, an LMS can now achieve business goals and objectives in ways not considered as little as five years ago. Some progressive companies are even leveraging the technology as a profit center, selling the service in order to defray the high costs of providing learning/training programs to customers and channels, thus converting an existing cost center into new revenues. This trend toward diversifying the function of an LMS from being solely employee- centric is becoming known as “extended enterprise” learning. By judiciously offering the benefits and convenience of the LMS, enterprise partners can quickly have access to tailored content that is controlled by the organization. Different registrant types can have selected content available to them based on their needs, which completely personalizes the learning experience. Some of the eclectic uses of LMS’s can be adapted to: >> customer training;
>> knowledge management;
>> certification;
>> partner and channel training;
>> new-product training;
>> event registration; and
>> certification. To those ends, your learning organization must also take on added responsibilities, including but not limited to: >> tailoring information based on user profiles >> providing a means to integrate training and commerce (in this case,  e-commerce) >>creating custom, multi-level registration processe >>opening up social media connections, using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitteraccounts >>publishing both learning and product catalog >>improving brand image and customer satisfaction. To support multiple external audiences, organizations can create an open Web portal as a public entrance into the LMS where users can access a partial or complete online course catalog, making it easy for organizations to deliver online content to the various audiences. Additionally, via some advanced LMS’s, administrators can generate widget pages and HTML pages on the fly and easily add them into the system navigation. This provides a customized portal for specific segments of users, putting relevant information at their fingertips. And while each user experience can be unique, organizations can still manage knowledge assets, reporting
and analytics across the entire system. Benefits Perhaps the most important benefit of developing and delivering information to audiences outside your organization is improving communication and productivity with those external “partners” and shareholders. You also provide consistent training, education and enablement to all those people on a 24-7 basis, 365 days a year if necessary. That, in turn, can eliminate excess training costs while accelerating time-to-market. And everybody will be happier, too. It’s a great way to increase customer satisfaction and/or product adoption while minimizing all the complexities involved in the delivery and scheduling of training for graphically distributed (worldwide) participants. You want to streamline reporting by obtaining consistent data collection? Consider an extended enterprise LMS. You want to convey consistent training materials and information on a timely and/or scheduled basis? Consider an extended enterprise LMS. Other benefits: >> Display available content in an online catalog without requiring the user to
log in.
>> Drive revenue through customer and distributor channels.
>> Deliver certification programs and manage knowledge.
>> Improve adoption rates of new product features and upgrades.
>> Manage registration and scheduling, class follow-up, assessments and evaluations, as well as reporting.
>> Track compliance and ensure that proper operating procedures are followed.
>> Certify partner, franchise, supplier, distributor and contractor knowledge. Buyer Beware This is not to say that all vendors who call their LMS’s “extended enterprise” mean the same thing. “One of the ways vendors pull this off is by listing e-commerce as a feature,” notes Craig Weiss, a learning professional who blogs at http://elearninginfo247.com. “Yet,paying for courses, self-registration, accepting vouchers, doesn’t qualify you as an extended enterprise, unless you have extended-enterprise components.” One of those components that signals a true extended enterprise system is the ability of the company to sell not just e-learning courses but also products and other items. Another might consist of marketing tools. Others: >> Multi-tenet or multi-portal >> E-commerce should be included, and not an extra fee >> Main system (portal) can push out material,courses, etc. to sub-portals >> Main portal that can see all the subportals: data, info, everything >> Sub-portal that can have their own courses, materials, tests, etc. — or those from the main portal or both >> Sub-portal that can see only its system, not any other sub-portals, but can setup their own rules (access, etc.) >> Sub-portal that can be given a lot of capabilities or limited, depending on the main portal set-up >> Sub-portal that should be a subset of the main LMS; branded/skinned differently then the main system, so LMS vendors allow the header and footer to be changed in the sub-portal, but the main portal’s main logo still appears. Profit Centers Although the majority of companies are currently training customers and/or partners, a large amount are selling training, rather than offering it for free. Smaller companies (fewer than 1000 employees) train a higher percentage of partners and/ or customers. With the global reach of an LMS, smaller companies are enabled to reach more external companies, providing them more opportunities and growth. For those companies wishing to make the learning function an additional profit
center, features might include: >> shopping cart;
>> payment processing;
>> transaction management;
>> tiered training catalogs (fee-based versus free); and
>> training purchases. Conclusion In today’s fast-paced, global economy, companies are challenged to adopt and respond to new business and compliance requirements more quickly than ever before. So the role of the LMS truly is changing — from a stand-alone silo to a dynamic, enterprise- wide application that is integrated into all aspects of the business. Extended enterprise training programs allow forward-thinking companies to control consistency and quality of training across all channels, extending the benefits to the whole value chain.]]> tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1965 2013-04-03T19:19:22-04:00 2013-04-03T19:19:14-04:00 —More info: www.softchalk.com]]> tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1964 2013-04-03T19:18:18-04:00 2013-04-03T19:18:18-04:00 —More info: www.omnibuslearning.com]]> tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1963 2013-04-03T19:16:20-04:00 2013-04-03T19:16:20-04:00 —For more information, or to register for the Global Leadership Congress where awards will be given: www.corpu.com/glc]]> tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1962 2013-04-03T19:15:26-04:00 2013-04-03T19:15:26-04:00 —More info: www.careerbuilder.com]]> tag:2elearning.com,2013:article1961 2013-04-03T19:14:10-04:00 2013-04-03T19:14:10-04:00 The Problem and Target Audience The mobile platform presents both unique affordances and constraints for the design of learning content. These are not being accounted for in traditional ID models, so ADL believes this knowledge gap may lead to less effective learning outcomes for the learners due to the following observations: >> Many learning content developers are creating new mobile content and converting existing eLearning courses to a mobile format by simply repurposing and resizing them to account for the smaller screen and interface differences. Often, there is no consideration for the aspects of learning, pedagogy, performance support, and user experience design. >> Mobile learning best practices have not been identified within the overall context of following an ID model or learning theory. Learning content developers are not sure how to design for the different motivational, contextual, pedagogical, and social/communication aspects of the mobile platform. The goal of the MoTIF research project is to support education and training professionals who are transitioning from e-learning to m-learning by providing a framework and catalog of microstrategy examples for thinking more deeply about their systematic design processes and mobile-specific affordances (e.g., using GPS for location-based and contextual learning, using the camera for augmented reality). If you are an instructor, instructional designer, learning content developer or training professional and would like to participate in the research, email adlmobile@adlnet.gov.]]>