eLearning News

A Classroom with Difference: A Whole New World of Learning!

empowerlms — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:58:48 +0000

The article talks about flipped classroom, flipped model, flipped learning model. It is of help for those who want to learn about what is elearning, online learning, and flipped learning, etc all about.

Learning in the flipped classroom is something that happens if the learner and / or teacher go against the traditional chalk and talk method, a mind-numbing methodology that has been inflicted for generations on unsuspecting students.

The flipped model has been much talked about in learning circles. Such circles have now come to include and accept ‘learners’ as active participants in the learning process. It essentially depends on using the new technologies to make learning interactive and interesting through the endlessly experiment media. The model seeks to provide a self-paced learning experience to the learner, in effect a ‘tailored’ one so that the learner may delve deeper into topics. The subjects / topics are of interest to him/her or spend more time on a particularly difficult one. Sounds amazing! Some may even rue the fact that they were born much earlier and being unable to take advantage of this newer system sweeping across the learning community.

Why, there may come a time when schools are no longer necessary and the learner “thinks’ his PC or tablet or some other gadget ‘on’ and chooses his / her learning for the time. No school buildings, no principal, no teachers and the least of all no punishments or social ostracism! The resultant tax savings may be channeled to other pressing needs or even subsidizing the studies of a ‘needy’ learner.

One may be forgiven for thinking that all this is fine for affluent societies, what about the millions who are in that part of the world where the required stuff is not available? Remember there was limited internet before the 1990s and yet societies have developed!

Some doubters still question this flipped learning model but these are in an increasing minority (their fear stems from having to relearn or come down from their pedestal of the ‘omniscient’ one).

About emPower

emPower is a leading provider of comprehensive Healthcare Compliance Solutions through Learning Management System (LMS). Its mission is to provide innovative security solutions to enable compliance with applicable laws and regulations and maximize business performance. empower provides range of courses to manage compliance required by regulatory bodies such as OSHA, HIPAA, Joint commission and Red Flag Rule etc. Apart from this emPower also offers custom demos and tutorials for your website, business process management and software implementation.

Its Learning Management system (LMS) allows students to retrieve all the courses 24/7/365 by accessing the portal. emPower e-learning training program is an interactive mode of learning that guides students to progress at their own pace.

For additional information, please visit http://www.empowerbpo.com.

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Workplace Performance Services: more than just Training

empowerlms — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:34:45 +0000

In his recent post, Informal Learning , 95% solution, Harold Jarche provides the reason why many workplace learning professionals can only think about “informal learning” and “social learning” in terms of how they can manage them within a blended training solution – rather than simply support them, as they happen, naturally and continuously, in the workflow.

“Since the latter half of the 20th century, we have gone through a period where training departments have been directed to control organizational learning. It was part of the Taylorist, industrial model that also compartmentalized work and ensured that only managers were allowed to make decisions. In this context, only training professionals were allowed to talk about learning.”

But to be fair, it is not just Training Departments that think like this, there are still many people in other parts of the business that believe that “learning” has to be “organised” or “packaged up” (in the form of “training”) to be seen as a valid solution to a problem.

So the issue seems to be twofold:

(1) that LEARNING (in whatever form) is seen as something that has to be designed and managed, to order to be valid, and

(2) that the Learning & Development department’s purpose is only seen as the provider of these “organised learning solutions” (ie training), where success is measured in terms of test scores and course completions.

Undoubtedly some L&D departments are very happy with just organising learning solutions (aka providing Training Services), whilst others prefer to be seen as the part of the business that helps workers do their job – or do them better. And there’s quite a difference between these two activities. The first focuses on designing, managing and measuring LEARNING. The second focuses on supporting and improving PERFORMANCE, where “learning” is seen as the means to the end – not the end goal. But more than this, it also recognises that “organised learning solutions” are just ONE way of solving a business or job performance problem, and there are many other approaches.

The persistent adherence to training solutions (courses and workshops, etc) to address performance problem has been shown to be ineffective in many studies. For example Robert Terry, writing in the Financial Times, Accountability needed for workplace training, in December 2011 says:

“Companies’ spending on training and development accounts for hundreds of billion pounds globally each year. But every year, according to successive empirical studies, only 5 to 20 per cent of what is learnt finds its way back into the workplace. While this failure to transfer and apply new learning in the workplace has long attracted academic interest, practitioners have been slow to change their ways. Despite the imperative that things cannot be managed without being measured, training has been getting off lightly. Surely a training industry that delivers less than 20 per cent cannot be fit for purpose?”

In all likelihood, there was probably nothing instructionally wrong with the courses/training in question; it was more likely to be the case that they were the WRONG solutions for the problems they were intended to solve.

What is more, as training solutions are frequently being seen as costly and time-consuming, and mean taking valuable time away from the job, we are seeing the increasing use of personal devices (iPhones, iPads, etc) as well as public social media tools by individuals and teams to (bypass L&D ) and solve their own performance problems – much more quickly and easily – in the workflow. In the summer of 2011 I wrote a series of Smart Worker postings showing how workers are doing this, and I also commented that by analysing how teams are now addressing their own learning and performance needs, this gives us a good idea how we can better support and improve performance in the workplace for others.

Often people take “performance support” to refer to the production of job aids, BUT (again) that is just one way that this can be done, there are plenty more possibilities. For example, it might involve supporting and encouraging individuals and teams to :

use the Social Web effectively, safely and responsibly to locate useful external informational and instructional resources, as well as to keep up to date with what is happening in their industry or profession
build a trusted Personal Knowledge Network (PKN) of (internal and external) colleagues who they can call upon for advice and support
set up and sustain an internal community of practice – to improve knowledge sharing within their team
co-create and share content within their team – to support one another’s learning and performance

So in terms of my own clients who come to me for help, rather than automatically assuming some form of training is the solution to their problem, I work with the relevant individuals and teams concerned to understand the root cause of their (learning/performance) problem, to identify the most appropriate way it can be solved that suits their working pattern and practices. It might well be that they need some form of organised training solution, but it is usually much more likely that their problem can be solved in a way that enhances their existing work practices – in the workflow. In which case, I then work with the same individuals and teams involved to put the solution in place. Part of this process also considers how they will measure the success of this new activity, and this is usually framed in terms of productivity or performance improvements.

As for identifying what the most appropriate solution to a performance problem is, there is no single methodology for doing this – as Harold says about supporting informal learning at work:

“It requires tools, processes and methodologies from a variety of disciplines. There are methods from knowledge management, organizational development and human performance technology, for example, that are quite useful in supporting informal learning. The modern workplace is a complex adaptive system. There is no single approach that can be used all the time.”

But one thing has become clear to me, to be successful, it is not about using traditional “command and control” approaches (that are employed in most training solutions to try and force people to learn), but it is much more about encouraging people to engage in these new activities to support one another as they (learn) to do their jobs – in many cases helping them to “connect and collaborate”. And this, of course is a key feature of building and supporting the collaborative culture of a social business.

Obviously, some L&D departments (and workplace learning professionals) will want to remain focused on providing Training Services for their organisations and be quite happy for other business functions to provide performance support services to help their people work smarter. Other L&D departments have already expanded their services to fulfil all these activities, and more are beginning to do so too.

Although one step might well be rebadging the department as a Workplace Performance Services Department in order to send out the right message to the rest of the organisation, it will take more than just a name change to be successful. Since the new department will be offering a range of new services (I’ve only mentioned a couple of them here), this will require new roles, new practices and new skills.

This article was originally posted at http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/2012/01/09/workplace-performance-services-more-than-just-training/

MGMA Calls for New Contingency Plan for HIPAA 5010 Transaction Standards

empowerlms — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:55:44 +0000

The Department of Health and Human Services should “immediately” issue an expanded contingency plan on the transition to the new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Version 5010 electronic transaction standards, since many practices and state Medicaid agencies are not ready for the transition, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) recommended Dec. 19.

According to the latest research from MGMA, many state Medicaid plans are unable to accept Version 5010 claims and “a significant number of practices” have not yet completed the software upgrades and health plan testing needed for the transition.

The new contingency measures should permit health plans to continue accepting HIPAA Version 4010 transactions and resolve Version 5010 claims that lack all the required data. Additionally, this contingency plan should last for a minimum of six months, MGMA said.

Currently, the compliance date for implementation of these standards is Jan. 1, 2012.

“We have been tracking the Version 5010 coordination between physician practices and their key trading partners throughout 2011 and it is clear that a significant number of these stakeholders are not ready to meet the January 1 compliance date,” Susan Turney, president and chief executive officer of MGMA, said in a statement. “Our main concern is that the failure to implement Version 5010 by the compliance date will impact payment to practices for the services they provide.”

“We oppose requiring the submission of a transition plan and timeline as a needless bureaucratic exercise that adds to the workload of the providers who have to produce them and the government employees who have to review them,” she said.

Implementation of Version 5010 is a prerequisite for using the updated International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) Clinical Modification diagnosis and ICD-10-PCS inpatient procedure code set in electronic health care transactions effective Oct. 1, 2013.

On Nov. 14, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that it would not initiate enforcement of the new HIPAA transaction standards until March 31, 2012 (see previous article).

Additional MGMA Findings

According to findings from a survey conducted by MGMA and the American College of Medical Practice Executives (ACMPE), 32 percent of study respondents reported that their organizations’ practice management system software has been upgraded to the HIPAA Version 5010 standards and that internal testing was complete.

Nearly 25 percent of those respondents indicated that either their software has not yet been upgraded or that testing is not even scheduled, the release said.

Additionally, less than 18 percent of respondents to the survey said they have completed testing with their Medicaid plans, and 79 percent of study respondents indicated that testing with all major commercial health plans remains incomplete.

Overall, the study found that less than 14 percent of respondents rate their 5010 implementation status as fully complete.

NASA Challenges Students to Train Like Astronauts

empowerlms — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:53:29 +0000

Everybody knows that if you want to be an astronaut, you need to have top-notch math and science skills. But astronauts also need the strength and muscle coordination to navigate a zero-gravity environment, so even the best students can’t cut it at NASA unless their bodies are in top shape, too. To help the next generation of students become physically and mentally prepared to be astronauts, NASA is taking a page out of First Lady Michelle Obama’s fitness playbook and launching the Train Like an Astronaut project.

The program, which is developed by the same NASA scientists and fitness professionals that work with current astronauts, provides “structured, hands-on science activities” and connects “physical Earth-based needs to the requirements of exploring space.” Each mission—”Do a Spacewalk,” for example—contains a student-friendly “mission briefing, mission assignment, and mission purpose, plus vocabulary and related NASA facts,” as well as information about proper nutrition. The missions and corresponding teachers’ guides are downloadable in both English and Spanish, and are aligned with health and physical fitness education standards.

Charles Lloyd, NASA’s human research program education and outreach manager, says one of NASA’s goals is “to inspire our youth to stay in school and master professions in the sciences and engineering fields” so they can carry on the important work of space exploration. Let’s hope Train Like an Astronaut catches on in schools so we can ensure there’s a next generation of fit explorers.

This article was originally posted at http://www.good.is/post/nasa-challenges-students-to-train-like-astronauts/

The learning cycle and the power of asynchronous learning activities

empowerlms — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:43:31 +0000

When grappling with the concept of learning I often talk about the importance of reflection. However, another key concept is asynchronicity (I’m not entirely sure that’s a word). I’ve reflected on this previously withinAsynchronous = Time and Space Learning. In that post I talked about how learning is more likely to occur when given time and space. I wanted to tease this out a bit more in relation to learning itself.

Learning is hard, really hard. It’s a skill just to recognise when it’s happening and cultivate it effectively. Often, the pain associated with it is viewed negatively. But the pain needs to gritted out because this is an important stage of the process. Marilyn Taylor characterised learning as a continuous process of disorientation, exploration, reorientation and equilibrium (see p53 of this). It’s a cycle and the desired state is multiple loops through the cycle. For every stage the flexibility, time and space offered by asynchronous learning activities is preferable to a purely synchronous involvement from formal education. Of course, for synchronous learning events you always have the time afterwards to reflect. But if you have a formal learning experience where everything is synchronous, the asynchronous times the learner has alone are not facilitated, not supported and without structured communication or collaboration when they need it the most. You may be thinking “so what” but this is the point of formal education – to structure, facilitate and, in some senses, manufacture the learning. When you structure in asynchronous learning activities through the various guises of learning technology tools and carefully facilitate such activities the stages of Taylor’s cycle are given the best chance of being rowed through by the learner. It’s easy for learners to capsize in the first time they encourage the disorientation stage and they’ll keep doing this every time they encounter it. Pretty soon they shy away from the mental states associated with the learning cycle.

I think this has contributed to the a vast mass of humans who don’t really know how to learn properly. They grew up on a diet of synchronous learning and the difficult process of moving through the learning cycle wasn’t supported in any way. The tragedy is they carry it through their adult life and have trouble becoming lifelong learners thus inhibiting their potential. I am still honing my learning skills but I keep trying and am able to support the process through various social media tool (like this one). BTW, learning overall is great. The “ah ha” moments are worth the pain. It’s a bit like going for a run but that metaphor can wait for another posting.

A couple of asterisks to this post. There is, of course, a lot of literature out there on learning theories and models. For this post, I chose one that describe a process I recognise. Also, the statement: “there are vast mass of humans who don’t really know how to learn” is based on anecdotal evidence. I think I have a somewhat informed decision but would welcome insights from others on this.

This article was originally posted at http://tpreskett.blogspot.com/2011/12/learning-cycle-and-power-of.html

10 Things Chemical Plant Operators Need to Know About OSHA’s New Chem NEP

empowerlms — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:04:25 +0000

On Nov. 30, OSHA announced the launch of its PSM National Emphasis Program for chemical facilities (Chem NEP). The new Chem NEP expands nationwide a previous 2009 Pilot Chemical Facilities Process Safety Management NEP, which had covered only a few OSHA regions, and established policies and procedures for inspecting workplaces covered by the PSM Standard.

The inspection process under the new Chem NEP includes detailed questions designed to gather facts related to PSM requirements and verification that employers’ written PSM programs are adequately implemented in the field. The intent of the NEP is to conduct focused inspections at facilities randomly selected from a list of worksites likely to have covered processes. The director of OSHA, Dr. David Michaels, announced at the launch of this new NEP that during “the pilot Chemical NEP, [OSHA Compliance] found many of the same safety-related problems that were uncovered during our NEP for the refinery industry … As a result, [OSHA is] expanding the enforcement program to a national level to increase awareness of these dangers so that employers will more effectively prevent the release of highly hazardous chemicals.”
Below are the 10 most important things chemical plant operators need to know about the new nationwide Chem NEP:

1. It is effective immediately and has no expiration.
Programmed inspections will begin immediately in all regions. Unlike the Refinery PSM NEP and the Pilot Chem NEP, this directive does not include an expiration date.

2. It expands the Chem NEP nationwide.
Whereas the pilot NEP involved only a few select regions under federal OSHA’s jurisdiction, the new nationwide Chem NEP applies to all OSHA regions. And unlike the pilot chem and refinery NEPs, states are required to participate in this emphasis program. If the approved state OSHA plan already has some version of a Chem NEP or wants to implement its own version (within 60 days), the state plan must demonstrate to federal OSHA that its program is at least as effective. Otherwise, the states must adopt this directive.

3. Targets for Chem NEP inspections include:
The types of workplaces inspected under the new Chem NEP are similar to the pilot. OSHA will assemble a master list for each region based on employers who: (1) submitted Program 3 Risk Management Plans to EPA; (2) have a NAICS code for Explosives Manufacturing; (3) appear in OSHA’s enforcement database as having been cited in the past for PSM-related issues; and (4) are known to the area office as operating a PSM-covered process. Any workplaces selected for inspection under OSHA’s Site-Specific Targeting Plan, which also happen to operate a PSM-covered process, will be inspected under the Chem NEP directive. Likewise, inspections arising from an employee complaint, referral or incident involving a PSM issue also will be conducted under the Chem NEP directive. Complaints, referrals and incidents unrelated to PSM may still result in an inspection under this directive at the area director’s discretion.

VPP- or SHARP-approved facilities are partially exempt. (They are exempt from programmed inspections, but may be subject to inspection under the Chem NEP upon an employee complaint, incident or referral related to PSM.)

4. The selection of unit(s) includes:
OSHA will attempt to identify “the most hazardous process” as the selected unit(s) for inspection under the Chem NEP. The selection of the unit(s) will be based on the following:
· Quantity of chemicals in the process;
· Age of the process unit;
· Number of workers and/or contractors present;
· Incident and near-miss reports and other history;
· Input from the union or operators;
· Ongoing maintenance activities; and
· 119(o) Compliance Audit findings.

5. Inspection scheduling expectations include:
Every OSHA area office across the country is expected to complete 3-5 programmed Chem NEP inspections per year. The sites selected for inspections will consist of approximately 25 percent workplaces that use ammonia refrigeration and 75 percent all other workplaces with a PSM coverage process.

6. It emphasizes implementation over documentation.
Like the pilot NEP, compliance officers will be focused on implementation of PSM elements in the field rather than relying solely on the quality of the written PSM program.

7. It features dynamic list questions.
Like the pilot NEP, the dynamic list-based evaluation under the Chem NEP is a mandatory gap analysis formatted in a series of questions to facilitate evaluation of compliance with various elements of the PSM standard. The list of questions rotates periodically and will not be publicly disclosed. The questions are accompanied by guidance for CSHOs as to what documents to request, interview topics and questions to cover, and potential citations to issue. Each dynamic list includes 10-15 primary and 5 secondary questions. Questions are designed to elicit a “Yes,” “No” or “N/A” determination of PSM compliance, and any “No” will normally result in a citation.

8. The following documents and presentations will be requested:
During a Chem NEP inspection, employers will be asked to produce the following documents:
· List of PSM-covered processes;
· List of units and maximum intended inventories;
· Three years of OSHA 300 logs for employer and contractors, and contract employee injury logs;
· Summary description of PSM program;
· PFDs, P&IDs, Plot Plans and electrical classification drawings for the selected unit(s);
· Description of process and safety systems, safe upper and lower operating limits and design codes and standards for the selected unit(s);
· The initial PHA and the most recent Redo or Revalidation for the selected unit(s) (including PHA reports and worksheets, recommendations and action items and schedule for addressing and completing recommendations and action items); and
· PSM incident reports for the selected unit(s).

Before a walkaround inspection, OSHA will request the following presentations:
· Overview of the company’s PSM Program and how it is implemented;
· Identify personnel responsible for implementing each PSM element;
· Description of records used to verify compliance; and
· Process description for the selected unit(s).

9. A single issue will yield multiple citation items.
As we reported about the refinery NEP, OSHA was turning a single issue into multiple violations. The agency has memorialized this practice in the Chem NEP directive. The directive advises CSHOs that a single valve change, for example, could implement 11 different PSM elements, and each should be considered for individual citation items.

10. Abatement verification and documentation is now mandatory.
Under the pilot NEP, some citations required employers to simply certify that abatement had been completed. Under the new Chem NEP, however, abatement verification and documentation is now mandatory. The NEP also directs CSHOs to review past PSM-related citations issued to the same employer going back 6 years, and identify potential failures to abate and possibly repeat and willful violations.

http://ehstoday.com/standards/osha/OSHA-Chem-NEP-1208/

21st Century Skills are so last century!

empowerlms — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 10:51:42 +0000

The new mantra, the next big thing, among educators who need a serious sounding phrase to rattle around in reports is ‘21^st Century Skills’. I hear it often, almost always in some overlong, text-heavy, Powerpoint presentation at an educational conference, where collaboration, creativity and communication skills are in short supply. Thank god for wifi!

But does this idee fixe bear scrutiny? In a nice piece of work by Stepahnie Otttenheijm, she asked (radical eh?) some youngsters what 21^st C skills they thought they’d need. Not one of the usual suspects came up. They were less vague, much bolder and far more realistic. Rather than these usual suspects and abstract nouns, they wanted to know how to create and maintain a strong digital identity, be nice, recognise what’s learnt outside school, learn how to search use my Facebook privacy settings. My suspicion is that they know far more about this than we adults.

Collaboration & sharing

Young people communicate and collaborate every few minutes – it’s an obsession. They text, MSN, BBM, Myspace, Facebook, Facebook message, Facebook chat and Skype. Note the absence of email and Twitter. Then there’s Spotify, Soundcloud, Flickr, YouTube and Bitorrent to share, tag, upload and download experiences, comments, photographs, video and media. They also collaborate closely in parties when playing games. Never have the young shared so much, so often in so many different ways. Then along comes someone who wants to teach them this so called 21^st C skill, usually in a classroom, where all of this is banned. I’m always amused at this conceit, that we adults, especially in education, think we even have the skills we claim we want to teach. There is no area of human endeavour that is less collaborative than education. Teaching and lecturing are largely lone wolf activities in classrooms. Schools, colleges and Universities share little. Educational professionals are deeply suspicious of anything produced outside of their classroom or their institution. The culture of NIH (Not Invented Here) is endemic.

Communication

Again, we live in the age of abundant communication. There’s been a renaissance in writing among young people, who have become masters at smart, concise dialogue. The mobile has taken communication to new levels of sophistication. They know what channel to use, in terms of whether it’s archived or not, synchronous or asynchronous. Texts and Facebook comments are archived, some messages are not (voice and; BBM). You call people, synchronously, when you want them to make a decision. Text is asynchronous, therefore slower, more relaxed. They can also handle multiple, open channels at the same time. What do we educators have to offer on this front? Whiteboards? Some groupwork round a table? Not one single teacher in the school my sons attend has an email address available for parents. I’ve just attended two major European conference where only a handful of the participants used Twitter. What do we know – really?

Problem solving

Problem solving is a complex skill and there are serious techniques that you can learn to problem solve such as breakdown, root-cause analysis etc. I’m not at all convinced that many subject-focussed teachers and lecturers know what these generic techniques are. Problem solving for a maths teacher may be factoring equations of finding a proof but they’re the last people I’d call on to solve anything else in life. Do teachers actually know what generic problem solving is or is it seen as some skill that is acquired through osmosis when a group of kids get together to make a movie?

Creativity

Beware of big, abstract nouns. This one has become a cipher for almost everything and nothing. I have no problem with art and drama departments talking about creativity but why does creativity have to be injected into all education. Creative people tend to struggle somewhat at school where academic subjects and exams brand them as failures. When it comes to creativity, my own view is that the music, drama and other creative skills my own offspring have gained, have mostly been acquired outside of school.

Critical thinking

I have some sympathy with this one, as critical thinking is sometimes well taught in good schools and universities, but it needs high quality teaching and the whole curriculum and system of assessment needs to adjust to this need. However, as Arun has shown, there is evidence that in our Universities, this is not happening. Arun (2011), in a study they tracked a nationally representative sample of more than 2,000 students who entered 24 four-year colleges, showed that Universities were failing badly on the three skills they studied; critical thinking, complex reasoning and communications. This research, along with similar evidence, is laid out in their book Academically Adrift.

Digital literacy

Across the Arab world young people have collaborated on Blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to bring down entire regimes. Not one of them has been on a digital literacy course. And, in any case, who are these older teachers who know enough about digital literacy to teach these young people? And how do they teach it – through collaborative, communication on media using social media – NO. By and large this stuff is shunned in schools. We learn digital literacy by doing, largely outside of academe. To be frank, it’s not something they know much about.

Conclusion

Beneath all this, is there just a rather old, top-down, command and control idea – that we know what’s best for them? Isn’t it just the old master-pupil model dressed up in new clothes? In this case, I suspect they know better. There’s a brazen conceit here, that educators know with certainty that these are the chosen skills for the next 100 years. Are we simply fetishising the skills of the current management class? Was there a sudden break between these skills in the last compared to this century? No. What’s changed is the need to understand the wider range of possible communication channels. This comes through mass adoption and practice, not formal school and university. It is an illusion that these skills were ever, or even can be, taught at school. Teachers have enough on their plate without being given this burden. I’ve seen no evidence that teachers have the disposition, or training, to teach these skills. In fact, in universities, I’d argue that smart, highly analytic, research-driven academics tend, in my experience, often to have low skills in these areas. , formal environment is not the answer. Pushing rounded, sophisticated, informal skills into a square, subject-defined environment is not the answer. Surely it’s our schools and universities, not young people, who need to be dragged into the 21^st century.

This article was originally posted at http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2011/11/21st-century-skills-are-so-last-century.html

Ways To Make Money From Your Job Through Learning

empowerlms — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:52:47 +0000

Evert business has to struggle hard to extract the best performance out of employees. While some companies use the mix of various managerial tools, there are others who believe in the process of earning from learning. As a matter of fact, learning is one of the simplest ways to improve the performance of human resource of an organization. For those organizations, which seek to find cost effective ways of imparting learning process, e-Learning is the best tool at hand.

However, learning is sometimes frustrating and uninteresting. But when learning is inherent in a job, the task of the management becomes easier. There are various things that one must incorporate in order to accelerate the process of learning. Firstly, if employees know that have to learn, things will get pretty difficult for the management because employees have a tendency to repel new changes. As such, learning should be inherent in the business, so that the employees know that they are gaining something out of the process.

E-learning is straightforward and uncomplicated. Organizations that have incorporated e-learning in daily routine have witnessed improved performance overall at all levels. Management might have several issues with a new system, just like the employees, but the top management needs to find the return on investment. Needless to mention, just like employees, management, too has to involve a lot of efforts and time, which often can be of real worry.

There are many companies in the world, which have been hugely benefitted from the earning from learning process. On the onset, it can be said that the process works largely for employees. However, there are many companies, which use the technique for improving their output. It is like a source of motivation for the employees, unlike monetary motivation, that seeks to bring the best from them without giving extra pressure on the job.

Earning is the prime concern for both employees and the organization, but doing the same job constantly for years reduces the pleasure of doing it. When the effectiveness of the mind improves, there is an increased desire to do things better and faster, which in turn can be of immense benefit to the business itself. Instead of hiring new staff and training them for new jobs, improving the abilities of present staff is a much better concept because the management can control them better. Learning and earning are essential components of every business that wishes to grow and develop on a constant basis.

About emPower

emPower is a leading provider of comprehensive Healthcare Compliance Solutions through Learning Management System (LMS). Its mission is to provide innovative security solutions to enable compliance with applicable laws and regulations and maximize business performance. empower provides range of courses to manage compliance required by regulatory bodies such as OSHA, HIPAA, Joint commission and Red Flag Rule etc. Apart from this emPower also offers custom demos and tutorials for your website, business process management and software implementation.

For additional information, please visit http://www.empowerbpo.com.

Virtual Training: Are You Engaging or Boring?

empowerlms — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:52:13 +0000

“It tends to be very foggy when you are training in the cloud, but remember, if you know your content, and design your training with user engagement and frequent interactivity, you will be sure to attain great results with virtual training from the cloud.”

Cloud-based virtual training allows instructors to deliver content without being present in a classroom with the students. In virtual training, when you can’t see the participants, how do you compensate for the environment?

The answer is to engage learners through the pace of your presentation, skillful use of your voice, and thoughtful employment of the features of your conferencing platform. Here are a few tips for clearing away the fog and holding a successful virtual training session from the clouds.

Use pace to engage the learner

Engaging the learner is the single most important design criterion for successful distance learning via virtual classrooms.

As you are well aware, the reality is that people in the corporate world are busier than ever today. Because of downsizing, many individuals are doing the work that two or even three people formerly did. When people decide to attend a virtual training session, they are likely to encounter many distractions: e-mail, talking on a cell phone, working on a project, or multitasking on other activities that their duties force upon them.

Most learners will feel motivated to attend training if the topic is one in which they are interested, but in the case of “required” training … not so much. The content had better be great in either case, or else they will be off multitasking at the first sign of boredom. How do we keep the learner engaged in our live Webcast or virtual training session?

Keep it moving

Everyone loves to hate slide-based presentations, whether done with PowerPoint or some other presentation software, but a presentation will inevitably be part of most virtual training sessions. Depending on what you have available to support your session you may not have any other options – not all Web conferencing software provides a whiteboard, video, interactive features, or other capabilities.

The brain reacts to colors and images, and goes to great lengths not to miss anything once the eyes focus on a screen. If you were watching television, and the screen only changed every two or three minutes, it would not take you long to figure out that you could multitask and not miss anything at all. When you watch the news, notice the flow … the director starts with the anchor reading a teleprompter to begin the story, and then quickly switches off the headshot and rolls in field footage to help tell the story with images. By keeping things interesting, with compelling visuals that move and update quickly, viewers become more engaged because they don’t want to miss anything.

The lesson is that in a virtual classroom, you must keep the content constantly moving. This means that, when presenting content, you will need more slides, with more pictures and less text per slide, than you may be accustomed to using for physical classroom training. Design the presentation to move along smoothly with pictures telling a story.

Do not build your content with a few slides that only contain text. Slow-moving, text-heavy slides are a recipe for disaster. Participants refer to text-heavy slides as “Death by PowerPoint” … meaning, no one wants to read slides or (even worse) have a person read the slides to them. Learners leave these presentations, and the chances of their returning are slim.

So, when do you know that the change of imagery is fast enough and not too fast or too slow? One way to test this theory is to ask yourself another question: If you posted the slide file as a stand-alone asset, could the students get the same benefit from it alone as they would get with an instructor? If the answer is “yes,” then you haven’t designed your content for a virtual training session with a live instructor.
Use your skills as a speaker

Many facilitators who are excellent face-to-face trainers approach virtual training with the attitude of “how hard can it be?” However, delivery in the virtual classroom is completely different from face-to-face training, and requires simultaneously mastering the technology and the content. It’s like asking a news anchor to direct the news and deliver the news at the same time … not an easy thing to do!

Bring it to life, don’t flatline it

Figure 1. Listen to radio hosts and commercials to get ideas on creating voice inflections.

You must become the master of visual stimulation, and the master of show direction, and the master of focusing your learners’ attention at the right time. While all this is going on, you are unable to see them to know if you are delivering an impactful training session or if you put them to sleep. So what can you do?

Your voice has a tremendous impact on the quality of your virtual sessions. You must focus on inflections, speed, the tone that you use with the learners, and how you pace your delivery of the content. Learners will evaluate you not only on the quality of your content, but on how pleasant, natural, confident, and interesting you sound. Reading slides is not training. Maximum impact and higher retention levels require dynamic delivery – coupled with your visuals.

To build vitality in your voice, pay attention to radio commercials and listen to how the narrator changes pitch, rate, and volume to get your attention. (Figure 1) Just like a radio personality, you can’t see the audience, and, in many cases, they cannot see you. A dynamic voice and changing visuals must stimulate the learner to pay attention. You are not “reading the material,” you are delivering ideas, facts, concepts, and examples in a way that brings them to life for the learner.

Team up for variety

Another great tip for longer training sessions is to deliver content with a co-presenter whenever possible. This immediately adds vocal variety to your virtual sessions. Think about the news or any sporting event … there is always more than one broadcaster so personalities can interact with each other and keep the delivery more interesting.

We call this vocal variety. This style of training is less predictable, so people will be more inclined to pay attention. Have the co-presenter start off the presentation by giving the introduction and explaining the proper etiquette and ground rules of the training session, and then taking on a moderator role. Your co-presenter can also help to answer questions, prompt you for questions, reiterate points for clarification, provide time checks, and keep the conversation focused. With this type of co-presenter coordination, the meeting will come across as professionally organized and VERY engaging.

Use the conferencing features

Although platforms differ, all conferencing software provides some set of features that will help you keep your learners engaged. Here are some tips for using the more commonly available features.

Annotate, don’t just dictate

Use of annotation tools in your conferencing software, such as pointers, arrows, or highlighters, will command and direct the learner’s attention to specific points on complex graphics. These tools allow you to drive the learner to the exact item that you are referring to. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The green arrow allows the participants to focus on a specific spot in complex graphics

Tailor the training space to the task

Always customize the virtual training room to reproduce the format that learners would experience in a live face-to-face classroom. Leveraging room layouts (such as those available in Adobe Connect – a Flash-based rich-media platform) is a great way to build a portion of the training with PowerPoint, a portion with pre-produced digital video, and a portion that uses video capabilities to broadcast several subject matter experts at the same time during a Q&A session. In an advanced platform like Adobe Connect that permits “multi-camera broadcasting,” each person can broadcast simultaneously so the learner can see the person answering their question.

Customization is a great way to make the training session dynamic and engaging to maximize the learner’s attention. This is especially important for well-known speakers or high-level executives. Put them on stage, let the learners interact with them, and they become part of the learning exercises.

Learners should not be listeners only

Polling is a great way to help you acquire instant and quantifiable input from your learners, and engage their minds. Even if you can’t see the learners, you can use polls to gain insight on their thoughts and emotions about the training content. A good polling question can get learners thinking in depth about the implications or applications of key points in the presentation. You can also use polling questions to determine the level of interest in a topic, and then make adjustments on the fly based upon real-time feedback to make the session more dynamic and fresh for each group of learners.

There are different types of polling questions, each with its own special characteristics. (See Figures 3 and 4) Don’t overuse polling questions, use them when necessary, and make them useful so the feature does not become redundant to the learner.

Figure 3. Multiple-answer polls allow more than one selection.

Figure 4. Multiple-choice polls allow only one selection.

Check their status to maintain engagement – and stimulate thinking

Another method to engage the learner is by using “status tools,” or emoticons. Leverage student engagement by using whatever emoticons or response icons are available from your conferencing platform. (See Figure 5)

Figure 5. Emoticons

Status tools or emoticons compensate for lack of visibility between the instructor and the student. These icons can help you replace the visual cues you would normally get in a physical environment where you see people. Encourage all participants to use them throughout the presentation.

This type of classroom structure lets the participants know that you will accept interruptions and that you are paying attention to their opinions. It makes the delivery dynamic – not just some “cookie cutter” or canned presentation. A great example of use of status tools is to ask if they “agree” or “disagree” with a question or statement you deliver. As a trainer you would say, “Give me a thumbs up if you agree that this solution fits well within your company,” and you would see the feedback in real-time. This also allows a trainer to “see” the type of audience they are working with and make adjustments on the fly if necessary.

Are you ready for your close-up?

If supported by the conferencing software, use the Webcam feature so you can employ your presentation skills and gestures; this brings learners into the content and helps them take the journey with you.

Your Webcam is the direct link to your audience. Use it wisely, and look into the lens when speaking to your audience to give the illusion of eye contact with each of them. (Figure 6) Even though you cannot see your audience, they can see you. When using the Webcam, you must use facial expressions, inflections on words, and gestures to build a connection with your learners. You may even want to place a sticky note next to your Webcam, to remind you to stay focused on keeping the connection with your learners.

Figure 6: Webcams allow you to have a direct, emotional link with your audience.

Key advice: rehearse it, don’t wing it

The more you rehearse the content in real time, the easier it is to keep eye contact with the Webcam. Rehearsal gives you mastery of the content.

More key advice: use the Webcam wisely

New virtual trainers often ask, “When should I turn the Webcam on and when should I turn it off?”

Remember this guideline: content that includes data, statistics, and facts that require reasoning and analysis can be included in a PowerPoint format without a Webcam. When you have any complex graphics or content, you don’t want the Webcam competing with it so turn it off. The Webcam image will command the learner’s attention and focus – in other words, if they see you on the Webcam, that’s where they will look. Movement in the Webcam will distract them from the graphics, and learners will not be sure which area of the screen to focus on.

Content that appeals to participants’ emotions is better expressed through the full-motion Webcam, because gestures and facial expression can sell the emotional side of your message. I like to use the Webcam when conducting polls and getting feedback so learners can see and hear my inflections along with the specifics I’m asking about.

Always be aware of your learners’ environments

Figure 8. Design your presentation
with smaller screen resolution in mind.

Finally, you must be cognizant of the devices used by your audience. Many people are now participating via tablet devices with smaller screens. (Figures 7 and 8) You should design your content so that the images are legible on smaller screens, including on smartphones. Learn about the mobile applications for these devices with the virtual training platform you use. If learners can tab around on window options, you must include narration that will guide them to the proper window when discussing graphics or charts. If it’s hard to read on your screen, it’s probably more difficult to read on a participant’s computer or tablet device. Make the effort to keep screens simple, and include less text and more visuals to help tell your story.

Figure 7. Mobile devices, like this tablet, are becoming
more popular

Melt the fog away with engagement and interactivity

It tends to be very foggy when you are training in the cloud, but remember, if you know your content, and design your training with user engagement and frequent interactivity, you will be sure to attain great results with virtual training from the cloud.

This article was originally posted at http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/802/virtual-training-are-you-engaging-or-boring?utm_campaign=lsmag&utm_medium=some&utm_source=gplus