November 30th, 2009 by Robin Green

Occupational training is used to educate or re-skill employees with the necessary expertise which is required for their day-to-day jobs. With most people working, online training has had an influence on occupational training and uses different forms of educational programs. Using web based training to deliver occupational training can avoid conflicts with schedules and provide employees with flexible learning environments.

With the availability of different learning platforms, employees can have real time classes in a virtual environment. This type of online training provides an interactive learning medium. Though majority of the courses are packaged for self paced learning and provide flexible learning environments.

In the discipline of occupational health psychology (OHP), employees need to focus on well-being, performance and prevent ill-health. To provide education in a flexible learning environment for employees/workers from different geographies and meet the demand for qualified occupational health psychologists, online training was considered to be an effective solution. The Kansas State University (USA) and University of Nottingham (UK) deployed the e-learning for OHP program using a blended learning approach.

Another concern that organizations face is training manual laborers and providing them with education on the latest machinery, operational and safety regulations. In such situation, online training can provide a solution since the gamut of training required to meet regulations are quite exhaustive.

Training in an online environment can range from emergency response, Flammable Liquid Safety, Forklift Operator Training, Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Refresher, etc. The hours spent in training affect productivity and do not guarantee up to date tutorials. When the training offered in traditional methods is converted into online training, the information available in the e-learning packages is the latest.

For instance online occupational training on HAZWOPER regulations is useful for workers that handle hazardous waste, response in emergency, working with heavy machinery etc. This equips works with the skills and knowledge to keep a safe working environment. Organizations invest in such trainings to ensure that the environment is safe but suffer due to lack of in-depth knowledge. To avoid this, online training resolves this problem by developing course materials by experts in the field and making regular updates.

Another industry that requires employees to have up to date skills and knowledge is health care. Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) require employees to undergo mandatory awareness training. This ensures that they are aware of the latest security and health safety plans. To meet such a large audience, traditional training can be a huge activity and a constant need to keep employees updated. When this training is converted online training, it can be made available to the audience in an interactive format. With intuitive e-learning environments, these professionals will have flexibility with schedules, immediate feedback, and better retention with exposure to the latest information.

Training employees in different occupations about various safety regulations means that the learning delivered needs to be focused to the particular industry. There are institutes that develop specialized courses for organizations that are required for each occupation. In fact, there are online training programs available for professionals to learn about environment regulations, employments laws, and other important procedures.

————

Coggno.com provides high-quality online training.

November 25th, 2009 by Robin Green

Today’s learning management system “food for thought”: what are some factors to consider before deciding to take your class or training program online? Take some time to reflect on three factors: your budget, your audience, and your goals and objectives.

Although it should never be the most important factor, one obvious consideration is your budget. Even though it may not be accurate the first time you draw it up (especially it it’s a new training program you’re trying out) it’s important to do it anyway. This way your training staff will have a goal to shoot for. You budget can always be adjusted later, when more information about training costs is known.

Keep in mind that your savings from online learning will come from many sources, including the relatively low cost of materials, travel, seat time, and administrative costs. For example, it generally takes at least three times as long to build e-learning material than it goes to create face-to-face training. However, depending on your needs, online training is typically quite cost-effective compared with face-to-face training.

Seat time, which refers to the time spent by the learner in any learning environment, is one important source of savings when going the online route. Depending on the learning material, online learning usually has a pronounced advantage over classroom training in this regard. Research suggests a roughly 50% reduction in seat time when a course is performed online. This depends on the content, of course, but for most types of learning material it applies.

The ability to change the format of learning material into many kinds of media (video, audio, text, etc.) is inherently time-saving. For instance, content is read about twice as fast as compared to its spoken form (for example, written text versus a lecture). Learning management system training, rather than allowing someone to do all the talking, allows learners to just read about it. Here one might argue for the interactive component of a classroom learning environment. Not to worry—we’ll get to that in a minute.

Second, think about your audience when opting for or against online learning. Do your students already have experience with online learning? In what ways do you expect them to benefit from online training?

But regarding your audience, there is one critical factor that rises above the rest. It’s something that comes in to play when you are actually creating your content on a learning management system or LCMS. This is the fun factor. Why is this important? Studies suggest that the absorption of learning material is much likelier when the way in which it was learned is enjoyable.

To do this, just empathize with your students. Sure, you may be very enthusiastic about the content you are developing, but imagine that you are designing a course about something you have no interest in (say, acarology) Create content that is not only to-the-point and informative, but also engaging. Here course creators can learn a great deal from children’s online learning environments. All too often adult online learning is dry and unimaginative, while e-learning created for younger learners is filled with well-developed, intrigue-piquing, and engaging features. Even if the graphics you have available are simple, engaging content is possible and crucial to capture and maintain students’ interest (at any age level).

Lastly, think about your goals and objectives for the online course. What are your time constraints? What new skills and knowledge should employees understand and be able to put into practice upon completion of training? Will opting for online training help you realize these objectives, and in what ways? Before signing on to any learning management system program, start by asking yourself these key questions.

—————

Coggno.com offers a wide range of high-quality LMS platforms.

November 18th, 2009 by Robin Green

In making decisions about company training methods and whether or not to employ a learning management system (LMS) to distribute training, sustainability is one top consideration. What makes a company training method sustainable?

In order to be sustainable, a training method must run smoothly without requiring a great deal of extra work. And as with any company procedure, those involved must understand the practices involved. In order for franchise managers, for example, to successfully train employees on standard procedures within a company, they themselves must understand those processes. This is one problem franchisors often experience in training their employees; the sheer quantity of company rules and regulations. It’s no wonder that training is often performed haphazardly or breezed through without much thought or planning.

Of course, online training delivered via a learning management system is great for small organizations. Managers can create short demos and tutorials using course creation tools, and quiz their employees to ensure that the material has been processed. They often create the material themselves, and are able to provide all the information needed for their employees to be successful. And for managers running a smaller operation, it’s simple to keep track of employees’ progress using LMS student tracking tools. A learning management system automates many training processes to ensure that employees are gaining the information they need to do their jobs well.

But LMS-created training courses are perhaps even more ideal for large companies, for the same reasons and more (some of which were mentioned in a recent post). Online training for large companies is the future, for many reasons.

Using a learning management system, companies are able to create and deliver training to large numbers of employees across the globe. Uniform training grants franchises uniform policies and procedures, which ensures better business practices. It ensures, in effect, the ability of a company to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive global economy.

Another problem that online training addresses in franchise training practices is the confusion that comes with updates and changes that are often unknown or misunderstood by managers. And again, if a manager is confused about a change, it follows that the employees will also be left in the dark. An LMS facilitates the rapid communication of these kinds of updates, so that everyone is clear on every detail related to their workflow, company goals, procedures, etc. It also enables companies to be more elastic, adventurous, and try new things, since training is easy to update and distribute to all franchise branches.

Sustainability depends heavily on how convenient and cost-effective a practice is. With pay-per-use learning management systems, companies are able to ensure that their training is kept up-to-date and fresh.

This model solves the problem that many organizations run into with online training; that is, committing to a training content creation plan that requires a great deal of output in a short amount of time. The result is oftentimes that companies are not able to create as much content as they originally planned, and thus money is wasted. However, using a pay-per-use LMS allows companies to create and deliver content on a needs-basis, so that training is always fresh, and never wasteful.

——————

Coggno.com offers premier LMS platforms.

November 13th, 2009 by Robin Green

So you have decided to pursue an online degree, and narrowed your preferences to a few online training courses! At this point, you will have a few concerns like, ‘how is this going to reflect on your resume?’ or ‘will this be acknowledged by employers in the market’ or ‘is this online degree recognized internationally?’

There are quite a few pros and cons to securing an online degree, and you need to be careful that your course is offered by a legitimate distance learning college. Why? In 2003 a report by USA Today revealed four hundred businesses that catered to online training and profited by selling fake degrees. While there were a few legitimate distance learning schools that offered degrees but provided poor quality of education that did not surpass the conventional learning environment.

To this effect, employers were skeptical about the knowledge acquired in an e-learning environment. Some were concerned about the content of the courses, curriculum and even with the outcome of the learning in an online environment.

To assist students that wish to pursue an online degree and ensure that the online training is valid, the National Education Board of the U.S. government has approved six accreditation agencies. These six agencies evaluate and accredit institutions that impart distance education and online degrees. This ensures institutes provide online training programs and degrees meet a certain quality standard and distinguish them from fake educational schools.

Today, all institutions covet to be top providers of distance education and provide access to virtual classrooms, modern online testing methods, online libraries and much more. They have courses accredited by the accreditation agencies and other renowned international agencies that evaluate online training.

There are other specialized accreditation agencies that only accredit particular online course programs. These agencies ensure that the online training meet a superior level of training excellence with major focus on course curriculum.

To most employers, accreditation from recognized agencies is a seal of trust and guarantees that the quality of education meets basic requirements. To parents and graduates, a degree from an accredited institution is an assurance that the online training qualification acquired is justified.

An important point to remember before you sign up for an online degree is to verify if the institution providing the certification is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. In addition to this, you can also check with Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). CHEA is an NGO which recognizes agencies that accredit online training programs in the US, organize policy and research on issues concerned with accreditation.

When you list your online certification on your resume, you need to make certain that the learning outcomes, relevance and course accreditation are included. Eventually, it is the decision of the employer to evaluate the validity of the online program. They might be cautious with the rise in fake online course certification but would definitely be at ease to see an accreditation by an agency recognized by the US Department of Education. Doing this is a great way of avoiding prospective employers from trashing your application and clearing any doubt regarding your online training degree.

———————–

Coggno.com offers a wide variety of online courses.

November 12th, 2009 by Robin Green

Corporations or brands who have created franchising opportunities within their businesses may not always have the time to oversee all franchise owners’ endeavors, or may not have the financial backing needed for franchise training. This may pose some significant problems within the organization as each separate franchise represents the brand as a whole. Franchise Training is essential for success, so the question remains, how do you establish and maintain corporate wide standards or uniformity among the franchises?

One simple answer can resolve the problem that so many worried business owners face. Online Franchise Training is a simple solution to the dilemma, as various compliant Learning Management Systems deliver cost-effective and customized training to organizations. This will help to ensure that each branch is being trained with the same information, regulations, and guidelines. It offers a way for Corporate to customize the training curriculum by including various training methodologies, implement interactive applications such as activities that require working experience, as well as test and assessments to evaluate the knowledge that has been accrued by that individual, and the success rate of the curriculum.

These courses can easily be brought into the workplace to complete at each employee’s computer, or completed at home after hours. Training booklets and rule packets are inefficient, and training videos can be outdated when it comes to new machinery or operating systems. Online Franchise Training is always kept up to date on the rules and regulations, operational tutorials for positions where employees may be working with some type of machinery, and enables various applications to make the training enjoyable and easy for not only the employees but to the employers as well.

Franchise training is not just for the employees to learn how to develop their roles or execute their roles, but also is a valuable resource for franchise owners who may not know how to go about owning a business and how to run it correctly. Organization and documentation are key elements to running a successful franchise, and when there is protocol to follow and information of what to use and how to use it, it can prove to be indispensible for a franchise owner and can save a lot of money being able to do it themselves.

Online Franchise training allows the Corporation to continually create training material for updated regulations or changes within the system, implementing ongoing refresher courses to all of their employees. This facilitates comprehension of protocol that may be continuous in changes and revisions and cuts back on risk by offering updated information on a regular basis and assessments on employees’ comprehension of the material.

To many organizations over look the importance of standardized franchise training, and as a result disorder and confusion can plague a franchise, hindering its’ success and growth. Training is merely looked as an afterthought, when in actuality it should be the foundation in which each franchise is built. In doing so corporations are ensuring a good representation of their company or brand is upheld by each separate branch.

—————–

Coggno.com offers premier e-learning education.

November 11th, 2009 by Robin Green

Learning management systems are one instructional technology that continues to evolve as classrooms evolve. As more and more classrooms are equipped with fancy new tools to enhance learning, LMS providers such as Coggno are quickening their pace and expanding their functions to keep up with the demand for simple-to-use, cost-effective, multimedia education.With the vast array of instructional tools now available, educators and training instructors need to choose carefully.

What are some factors involved in deciding which technology to pursue? The choices are seemingly limitless, but can be costly; annual costs for instructional technology range from thousands of dollars (for smaller school districts) to millions for larger districts.

Before deciding on integrating new technology into a classroom, educators and administrators should consider the educational objective and goals that the technology will help them reach.

Actually, there are heaps of considerations when choosing a new tool for a classroom or training program. Besides the cost involved and purposes an instructional technology offers a learning experience, perhaps the most critical factor for many educators is how user-friendly it will be.

Learning management systems are a great option for educators for many reasons, including the fact that they allow educators to have fun creating multimedia learning content for their classrooms. But perhaps more importantly, an LMS like Coggno gathers many applications together and fuses them into a nice neat package, so that educators feel comfortable using the tools to create content. Application Exchange partnerships often built by learning management systems help to make for seamless and simple course development.

Using Coggno’s LMS, for example, there’s no need to ask for IT help to design and deliver multimedia courses and training.

How about some Flash-based learning content? Using Coggno’s learning management system, educators and course developers are able to use Rapid Intake Unison and other applications to make their students’ learning experience more enjoyable.

Rapid Intake Unison makes it easy for educators and course creators to capture, storyboard, develop, review, test, and publish Flash-based learning content. Users don’t even need to know Flash to use the app. All a user must do is fill out form-based templates, and Flash-based material including demos, simulations, quizzes, and learning games is simple to create.

Another simple-to-use appex partnership is with BB FlashBack, which allows course creators to make screen recordings using quick, automated recording steps to create a richer and more dynamic learning experience.

Coggno’s LMS toolkit, which includes a text editor, SCORM Publisher, podcast producer, question banking, video, quiz and assessment tools, enables organizations to provide rich, multi-media online training at a low cost. Additionally, Coggno’s LMS follows a pay per use model, and requires no up front costs to create and deploy training.

Another consideration for many educators in deciding which instructional tools to employ is the commitment involved. If I try out an LMS or LCMS for my classroom, and for whatever reason decide that it’s not a good fit for my needs, what happens?

All too often, organizations sign on for monthly LMS contracts, but discover they never end up creating and deploying as much training or other instructional content as they planned. Time goes by and net costs begin to mount. Pay-per-use learning management systems respond to this problem.

LMSs like Coggno make it easy for anyone to create and deliver training and other content on a needs-basis, so that no long-term commitment is asked for.

————-

Coggno.com provides a robust Learning Management System platform.

November 9th, 2009 by Robin Green

What makes online training different from traditional classroom training? Is it the cost of training delivery, course of degrees that your learners can choose from, or is the flexibility that elearning offers? We have listed some of the most widespread advantages that online training offers to learners and trainers.

You want to lower the cost of training! With online training you can reduce brick and mortar costs that are needed for classrooms. If you have a global learning audience, e-learning can help you reach this audience with ease and cut the cost involved for travel, accommodation and support material. With online training, students can save on the cost of buying books, notes or additional materials that are required in a classroom. All the materials can be made available online and downloaded as required.

You need flexibility when training! When you have your entire training available online, you don’t need a schedule. All you need to do is upload the training modules, videos, audio transcripts and launch the course. What you need to do is decide on the calendar day to release the training so that your students are aware when the latest online training is available. This approach works well for students as well because they can study at their own pace.

Make your training effective!  It’s a fact that most of the learners do not retain all the training delivered in the classroom. Online training is designed and developed to overcome this challenge and allows the learner to revisit the training when needed. In fact one of the top advantages is that you can have a large audience and better training effectiveness as compared to a large classroom audience.

Flexibility with the audience! Most of the training carried out in the classroom is not suited for learners who are working. They are either at night school with a day job, a part time job with a part time course and or in-house training in organizations. In any scenario this can affect the productivity of employees and be quite tiresome for such students. Online training is an advantage in such scenarios. Why? Learners can decide the schedule, learn when they choose to and get back to the job. The training is always available and can be picked up from where its left off. Even trainers can reach a wider audience, which is not really an option with in house training. Not everyone is willing to leave a job to earn a degree but would find this alternative quite tempting.

Your learners can network! Though classrooms enable face-to-face interaction, it is not a solution when your learners have a doubt. In such situations, online training can give your learners the comfort of asking questions without feeling awkward. This confidence helps learners; trainers and the learners can network while they work with each other. Virtual classrooms like these foster an environment to learn and have a high success rate.

Assignments, assessments and evaluation!  Online training leverages the latest technology to assess learners and provides trainers with customized reports. Assessments can be made more interactive, real life scenarios can be used to engage learners and even basic multiple-choice questions can be randomized to avoid dishonesty. Learners have the advantage of receiving feedback instantly or at the end of the test. In house training assessments do not offer learners or trainers flexibility of this variety.

It is important to remember that online training has proved to help learners better and retain a large amount of training because of a self paced environment. There are other benefits that are seen in an online learning environment but usually experienced by learners that are a part of an online training for the first time.

————–

Coggno.com offers world class LMS set of features and benefits.

November 9th, 2009 by Melissa

Colleges around the nation have begun to revolutionize their curriculum by implementing a Learning Management System into their course work. Specialty schools such as Full Sail University, South University, Strayer and numerous other universities have based entire degrees off of the Learning Management System and offer eLearning courses for their students who are located nationwide. Interactive courses, high tech videos taking place of seminars, as well as group projects, still allow the student to receive a higher education with the same quality as learning inside the classroom.

One student, Jim Miller, an Internet Marketing Major, talks about his experience attending Orlando based Full Sail University, while living on the West Coast. He states that having to work full time for a living and go to school full time makes it difficult, but the flexibility of his classes is what makes it possible for him to seek higher education while establishing a career. “It’s great because class is wherever you are. The convenience and flexibility of when you attend your class enables you to work your education around your career which helps to facilitate both endeavors.”

The Learning Management system provides a platform where students can seek help if they have questions about any of the concepts covered within the courses. Professors or Counselors open their availability to their students in the case they may need support, and a 24/7 mentorship with highly trained Counselors is offered, or students can contact their Professors directly via email. Another additional benefit to implementing distant learning programs into College’s curriculum is that it allows students to experience and experiment with different learning methods to see how they learn best.

However, with every pro there must be a con. Some courses within Universities may require their students to participate group projects. This can make it difficult when factoring in work schedules, time differences, and less motivated students that could hinder the integrity of their projects. Assessments are constantly underway to ensure that the curriculum is being delivered in a way that students fully comprehend the concept as well as the technique that is being used within that course is effective and successful.

When asked how he felt about the quality of the Learning Management System in regards to curriculum and teaching of “in classroom” courses in comparison to online courses, Jim Miller states, “The only difference that I have experienced is that you are not physically in the classroom. I feel the quality of the curriculum and the concepts I am being taught are held at the same standard and uphold the same quality at any other University attending an in-person course.”

Other Colleges, while still may not have implemented an all inclusive Learning Management System online learning program, have implemented certain components into their curriculum. To spice up some of the classes, Professors will hold class online in a chat room and do the whole class in video slides and hold discussion in a chat box hosted on the School’s secured website. People are starting to recognize the ease in online learning and the fascination, and slowly but surely they have started to implement Learning Management System into their own curriculum.

————

Coggno.com provides high-quality online training.